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ouvenir of t 






Held in th.e Palace Hotel,.; in 
City of San Francisco 
February 'Twenty-first 
1906 



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A. Souvenir of the 



Dr, 







Banquet 



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Held in tHe Palace Hotel, in tHe 

City of San Francisco 

February Twenty-first 

1906 




DR. DOUGLAS HYDE BANQUET 



JUDGE JAMES V. COFFEY Chairman and Toastmaster 



List of Guests 5 

Judge James V. Coffey — Eemarks 10 

Dr. Douglas Hyde — Eemarks 13 

Archbishop Montgomery — "Civil and Eeligious Liberty" 21 

James D. Phelan— "The United States" 26 

Governor Pardee — ' ' The State of California " 35 

Mayor Schmitz— < ' The City of San Francisco " 39 

Chief Justice Beatty— "The Judiciary" 39 

Hon. Frank J. Sullivan— "The Exiles of Erin" 43 

John McNaught— ' ' The Press " 68 

Benjamin Ide Wheeler — ' ' A People : s Heritage " 72 

Very Eev. J. P. Frieden, S. J. — ' ' Gaelic in the Schools of Ireland ' ' 75 

Michael O 'Mahony — Eemarks 79 

Eev. F. W. Clampett— Eemarks 81 

Eev. P. C. Yorke— "Ireland a Nation" 82 




DR. DOUGLAS HYDE 



The banquet given to Dr. Douglas Hyde at the Palace 
Hotel, Wednesday evening, February 21, 1906, was the 
most brilliant social gathering ever held in San Francisco. 
Nearly five hundred guests, distinguished in all profes- 
sions and stations of life, attended. Class, creed and 
politics were laid aside for the occasion, and in conse- 
quence the banquet will live forever in San Francisco's 
history as the most sincere tribute paid to the representa- 
tive of a vital, noble and influential movement. It was 
eight o 'clock when the guests formed in line and marched 
to the spacious banquet hall, where myriads of electric 
lights and decorations of flowers and Irish and American 
flags transformed the place into a veritable fairyland. 

Marquardt's orchestra occupied a position on a raised 
platform at the end of the banquet hall and discoursed 
patriotic airs. The harp solos of Mine. Alexandra Mar- 
quardt were especially well received. 

Judge James V. Coffey acted as toastmaster. His 
introductions of the different speakers of the evening 
were full of witty sayings, and he kept his auditors in a 
pleasant frame of mind. The following toasts were re- 
sponded to : 

' ' Our Guest, ' ' Dr. Douglas Hyde ; ' ' Civil and Religious 
Liberty," the Most Rev. Archbishop Montgomery; "The 
United States," Hon. James D. Phelan; "The State of 
California," Hon. George C. Pardee; "The City of San 
Francisco," Hon. Eugene E. Schmitz; "The Judiciary," 



». I1YDE. BANQUET 



StAlllUi — TOASTS. 



HON. JAMES V. COFFEY Chairman 

Vallpaic T>U J' t)0 dlaoi* 50 curfiaicai, 
Seapa* 1 ■creatines* pann a'p Faon-laj. 
'S cattpea-6 an ceann beift ceannj-a Caona, 
Caicpeaii an neapc •oo'n deapc po pcpioca*. 

7/4^ Midnight Court. 
DR. DOUGLAS HYDE 

A Cpaoibin Aoibinn aluinn 615 
1p leacan •00 cpci^e, ip t>eap 'oo ^65; 
1llo leun t gan mipe leac p£in 50 •oeo , 
'S'JO ncei* cii a rhuipnin, plan. 

Ah Craoibhin. 

MOST REV. ARCHBISHOP MONTGOMERY 

Civil and Religious Liberty 

■D'a bpig pin cngaij x>o Caepap na neife tp 

te Caepap ajup cugaig x>o tlia na neite ip le • , 

t>ia. 

Naoinh Matlia xxii. 
HON. JAMES D. PHELAN The United State, 

p'opcep-o lappin inapaile tn-opim6p. 

Conaccap eclaipmbic ajup t>uii am>. 

Senoip clepi J teie ipanoeclaip. 

Imcomaipcip maelnuin 136 : 

" Can nuic 1" ot pe. 

' tlleippe an coice* pep tjec -oi niunicip 

bpenauvo bippa. ^ 

■Ocroeacnomap -oiap naitichpi ipinnoctan 

Con-oocappla ipaninopipe." 

Tlx Voyage of ' Matldiiiri. 
HON. GEO. C. PARDEE The State pf California 

'Si 'n cip ap aoibne ap bit lis pagail, 

An rip 'p mi call, anoip pa'n ngpem, • 

11a cpainn ag cpoma* te copa* a'p blae 

Ap -omlteabap a S pip 5 o bapp na_n"" 5 eu 5 . 

Thr Lay 0/ Oitian. 
HON. EUGENE E. SCHMIT2 The City 0/ San Franeiteo 

Cia an x>im pioj-oa, po bpeaj, 

Ap pop ip ailne t>' a bpaca pint,- 

'11a bpuilmio ag cpiatt 'na «aiL, 

tlo eta ip apo-plait op an tn':n ? 

Tkt Lay of Oisian. 



HON. U v . S. BEATTY The J«<Hc,ary 

tti cuipr Jan ate. £an peatr. s»" piagail i, 
>la cii.pc »j $<:pea'e map tleatc ra p.am i, 
«n CO.pr p $lua>r 6 pUa'$ce pe.me, 
Ate cn-ipc ra -ocpuaj. na mbua-o 'p na mbeite. 
Thr Midnight Court. 

HON". FRANK J. SULLIVAN Tlv EMct.of Erin 

ip puap i an jaot op.", cpiiao-la mapca 

Cipe mo mnipnin, plan leac 50 bpat> 
<N S up m.fe aj cp.all anonn tap an cpa.le, 

Anonn tap an cpa.le, -mo tpeat I mo tpa-6! 
6 ti me as cpwll ua.c, a iti6l|\nin -Sile.>p, 

beannaic agop r ,t e ope, a pi'nn 6m' dpoioe 'pcig. 
beannate ope £0 buan, ot ! beannatc agup mile, 

*S eipe 'p a mii'pin plan leac 30 bpat. 

An Craoibliin . 
JOHN McNAUGHT The JVesi 

Hiop t6mpaii leama.p na -outtapram bpeige e, 
tla-ouba.pc bean liom 50 nouba.pc bean lei i. 

TI,, Midnight Court. 

DR. BENJAAUN IDE WHEELER .4 VcoplcS Heritage 

1p e oeip paotap paopu.5 taoim, 
A'p I1.1p.5nt Iti^e a"nnca T>aim' a'p n&oim, 
lp e oe.p men, na 5 ca.t-ban mm— 
■50 ma. pi* ip n5ae«ili 5 plan I 

Dtrtmlt Foley. 
THE VERY REV. JOHN P.FRIEDEN, S, J 

Gaelic in the College* 

Aj t'aooic an cple.be 00 dualai* mi pjenl 

■50 5cmpp'*eap an Sao-oal a n.aipoe, 
Lute beaplapaoi teo a'p paoi na.pe 5 o-oed, 

Ajiip ronap a'p p6g 4 P *P JcaipoiB. 

An Craoibliin . 

MICHAEL O'MAHONY pailre tro'n cpao.bi.. 

annp an-aip'O-eeanSai* bi ag bapt> apif |-«o> 
Cuipim pdHiaib-pe na naoi mile pa.lce, 

Uoim m6p ajup teas. P 01 '* 6 5 4 S U F I" -'". 
Iloim reap asup bean asup pa. pee. 

All Cruoibhiii. 

THE "REV. F W. CLAJIPETT. D. D. Itemarkt 

T\\o lam t>uic, a bpata.p tp epc.ne, 

le paps»*ceann ceic, map ip c6.p; 
•Jup caba.p cam -co lam, map an gectrona, 
Cai-o p$apta le pa-oa 50 leop. 

Padran. 

THE REV P. C. YOBKE Ireland a Nation 

niajail eipeannat in eipinn, 

Sin an pocal 'p mil.p linn 
Vocal a bpml e.peadc 5*a« ann 

Vocal bpiosman, pocal b.nn. 

An Clloibhln. 



Hon. W. H. Beatty; "The Exiles of Erin," Hon. Frank J. 
Sullivan; "The Press," John McNaught; "A People's 
Heritage," Dr. Benjamin I. Wheeler; "Gaelic in the Col- 
leges," the Very Rev. John P. Frieden, S. J.; "Failte do'n 
Craoibhin, ' ' Michael 'Mahony ; remarks, the Eev. F. W. 
Clampett, D. D. ; "Ireland a Nation," the Rev. P. C. 
Yorke. 

Following was the musical program : ' ' Star Spangled 
Banner"; "Selection of Irish Melodies"; "Pilgrim Chorus 
and Song to the Evening Star, from Tannhauser"; valse, 
"Erie go Brath"; grand fantasie, "Bohemian Girl"; 
valse, "Primrose"; selection, "Salute to Erin"; "Be- 
lieve Me, If All Those Endearing Young Charms"; "The 
Wearing of the Green"; march, "The Irish- American. " 

The menu, printed both in Gaelic and English, read as 
follows : 

Here beginneth the banquet in honor of Dr. Douglas Hyde, at 
the Palace Hotel, San Francisco, Wednesday, February 21, 1906. 

MENU. 

Blue Points on the Half Shell 

Hodge Podge, Dublin Style 

Eadishes Olives Celery 

Mont Eouge Sauterne 

Tournedos of Striped Bass, a la Belgrade 

Potato Fines Herbes 

Mont Eouge Zinfandel 

Larded Filet of Beef, a la Cremone 

Bouche of Chicken, a la Fontenoy 

Eoast Squab, Giblet Sauce 

Punch Eire go Brath 

Green Peas 

Biscuit Hibernia 

Assorted Fancy Cakes 

Demi Tasse 

Pommery Sec 

Apollinaris Water Cigars and Cigarettes 







w -•■ •.••■ 










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FACSIMILE OF COVER OF MENU 



The guests present 

L. Ahern 

Very Eev. H. A. Ayrinhac, 

John J. Barrett 

John P. Barrett 

Chas. Beardsley 

Bev. Bro. Benedict 

Hon. W. H. Beatty 

Chas. A. Bantel 

Bev. Bro. Bernard 

Theodore P. Bonnet 

Thomas P. Boyle 

Bev. Philip Byrne 

Bev. P. P. Brady 

James E. Britt, Sr. 

William Broderick 

Bev. Thomas J. Brennan 

W. J. Brady 

O. E. Brady 

Eev. P. D. Brady 

D. M. Brereton 

E. P. Brinegar 
Dr. C. F. Buckley 

B. Bunton 
John Burns 
Bev. W. J. Butler 
Bev. J. A. Butler 
Jos. Byrne 

W. J. Byrne 
Geo. H. Cabaniss 
Edward P. Cahill 
James J. Caniffe 
T. J. Cannon 
Bev. B. Cantillon 
Bev. John Cantwell 

C. J. Carroll 
Michael Casey 

Bev. F. W. Clampett 
George Clarkson 
E. M. Clarkson 
John Clifford 
Hon. James V. Coffey 
Bev. M. J. Clifford 
W. E. Christy 
Edward I. Coffey 
Jeremiah V. Coffey 



were : 

M. W. Coffey 
S. S. E. H. Coleman 

Eev. M. Coleman 

M. J. Conboy 

James Concannon 

Eev. M. J. Concannon 

T. A. Connelly 

J. A. Cooper 

E. B. Corcoran, U. S. A. 

W. J. Cornell 

Frank J. Costello 

E. H. Cosgriff 

Carl Crantz 

W. H. Crim 

P. J. Crowe 

Eev. T. Caraher 

Eev. Wm, Cleary 

J. B. Crowley 

Wm. Cronan 

T. J. Crowley 

John Caffrey 

P. Campion 

John B. Casserly 

Frank C. Cleary 

Bryan J. Clinch 

William Cluff 

A. Comte, Jr. 

Thomas Connolly 

Judge Charles T. Conlan 

John P. Coghlan 

I. Cohen 

D. E. Collins 

M. P. Corridan 

D. J. Costello 

Frank Costello 

James M. Costello 

H. H. Cosgriff 

Stephen V. Costello 

J. Corley, 

Eev. John J. Cullen 

Eustace Cullinan 

Bev. P. J. Cummins 

Michael Cudahy 

John Cunningham 

William Curlett 



P. J. Curtis 

James S. Cussen 
Judge Daniels 
Rees P. Daniels 
W. E. Dargie 
J. B. Davitt 
John P. Davis 
Jeremiah Deasy 
Jeremiah Deneen 
Dr. P. W. D 'Evelyn 
Norman D 'Evelyn 
Walter J. Demartini 
James N. De Succa 
J. P. Dignan 
Hugh Dimond 
Dr. E. P. Donnelly 
Thomas Doyle 
Judge P. H. Dunne 
Lawrence Dunnigan 
Thomas I. Dillon 
Eev. J. J. Dollard 
Rev. L. P. Donleavy 
Thomas Donnelly 
M. Donohoe 
Patrick Donohoe 
R. P. Doolan 
James Donovan 
Frank S. Drady 
Frank C. Drew 
John S. Drew 
John S. Drum 
James B. Duggan 
John B. Duggan 
Thomas E. Dunn 
James P. Dunne 
Peter F. Dunne 
M. H. De Young 
Charles Edelman 
W. J. Egan 
Rev. J. H. Ellis 
James English 
J. A. Farrelly 
Charles W. Fay 
James B. Feehan 
Rev. P. J. Fisher 
Hon A. G. Pisk 
Captain T. Fitzgerald 



John G. Fitzgerald 

C. B. Flanagan 

J. W. Flynn 

John T. Pogarty 

H. Forsland 

Tirey L. Ford 

Very Rev. John P. Frieden 

John F. Farley 

J. P. Fennell 

Martin Fennell 

James S. Fennell 

Robert Ferral 

Thomas P. Finn 

Charles Fisher 

John E. Pitzpatrick 

R. M. Fitzgerald 

T. I. Fitzpatrick 

Dr. G. J. Pitzgibbon 

P. H. Flynn 

Dr. M. J. Fottrell 

P. Furlong 

George E. Gallagher 

Dr. J. J. Gallagher 

Rev. P. J. Gallagher 

Dr. John Gallwey 

Dr. Thomas Galvan 

Rev. James J. Gannon 

Prof. C. M. Gayley 

Dr. J. F. Gibbon 

James Gilmartin 

John G. Gilmartin 

Dr. A. H. Giannini 

William P. Glynn 

J. Goldstein 

I. Golden 

Judge Thomas F. Graham 

John Grant 

Joseph E. Green 

Captain H. P. Gleason 

Rev. R. A. Gleeson, S. J. 

J. B. Hagerty 

L. A. Hannon 

J. Downey Harvey 

Wm. Greer Harrison 

M. C. Hassett 

Francis J. Heney 

Dr. Joseph W. Henry 



M. J. Hession 
Thomas P. Hogan 
Eev. Thomas E. Horgan 
John Horgan 
Eev. T. W. Horgan 
M. K. Hogan 
Eev. P. Horan 
Samuel Horton 
M. H. Howard 
Louis M. Hoefler 
E. P. Hooe 
Dr. W. B. Howard 
John H. Hughes 
William F. Humphrey 
Eev. Ealph Hunt 
James Hurley 
Marcus A. Jaekson 
Dr. David Starr Jordan 
William Judge 

E. P. Kavanagh 
P. J. G. Kenna 

Eev. E. E. Kenna, S. J. 
P. J. Kennedy 
A. Kains 
George B. Keane 
Eev. P. J. Keane 

F. S. Kelly 
M. H. Kelly 
Thos. W. Kelly 
H. M. Kelly 

Alex S. Keenan, M. D. 
Phil. J. Kennedy 
Eev. James Kiely 
Eev. M. Kennedy 
Daniel F. Keef e 
F. J. Kierce 
Joseph King 
Paul F. Kingston 
Joseph F. Kirby 
Marcellus Krigbaum 
Theo. Kitka 
Martin Lacy 
Wm. H. Langdon 
D. J. Lally 
Charles S. Laumeister 
Philip J. Lawler 
W. P. Lawlor 



John Lee 

E. J. Livernash 

W. H. Leahy 

Edward P. Luby 

J. A. Lennon 

Dr. A. T. Leonard 

Eabbi Meyer S. Levy 

Eev. Brother Lewis 

T. F. Lonergan 

Percy V. Long 

Judge W. G. Lorigan 

Andrew Lynch 

Eev. P. E. Lynch 

John C. Lynch 

Eev. W. Lyons 

Thomas Magee, Jr. 

Dr. Maher 

Major Frank Mahon 

Most Eev. Geo. Montgomery, D.D. 

D. M. Moran 

E. F. Moran 

Judge W. W. Morrow 
Eev. James Melvin 
T. J. Mellott 
T. J. Moynihan 
Conor Murphy 
M. Mullany 
J. Mulhern 
Thornwell Mullally 
Hubert Murray 
Jeremiah Mahoney 
C. A. Moraghan 
Dr. T. H. Morris 
H. I. Mulcrevy 

F. J. Murasky 
Frank P. McCann 
Owen McCann 

Dr. Charles J. McCarthy 

Denis McCarthy 

J. W. McCarthy 

T. D. McCarthy 

E. McCoy 

J. S. McCormick 

J. T. McCormick 

A. B. McCreery 

Edward McDevitt 

Joseph T. McDevitt 



P. A. McDonald 
J. E. McElroy 
Garret W. McEnerney 
W. B. McGerry 
Dr. C. D. McGettigan 
Chas. J. McGlynn 
Stephen McGurk 
John D. McGilvray 
Eev. P. McHugh 
Owen McHugh 
Peter McHugh 
Jos. McKenna 
Benjamin L. McKinley 
Hugh McLoughlin 
John McLaren 
Eev. C. A. McMahon 
L. J. McMahon 
Gavin McNab 
Eev. J. J. McNally 

D. E. McNeill 
John McNaught 
Dr. W. F. MeNutt 
James C. Nealon 
Arthur Nolan 
Eabbi Jacob Nieto 
Eev. J. E. Nugent 
Eev. T. Oullahan 
Dr. A. P. O'Brien 
J. F. O'Brien 

J. J. O 'Brien 
T. J. O'Brien 
Thomas V. O'Brien 
J. J. O'Connor 
Dr. J. H. O'Connor 
M. E. O'Connor 
Thomas M. O'Connor 

E. C. O'Connor 

Dr. M. W. O'Connell 
M. O'Dea, Jr. 
Anthony O'Donnell 
James E. O 'Donnell 
Dr. A. A. O'Neill 
Thomas F. O'Neill 
Dr. F. E. Orella 
D. O 'Sullivan 
Laurence O 'Toole 
J. C. O'Connor 



Joseph O'Connor 
Eev. D. O 'Sullivan 
Eev. E. O 'Sullivan 
John J. O 'Connor 
Eev. Philip O'Eyan 
Joseph P. O'Eyan 

D. J. O'Leary 

E. O'Driscoll 
Michael O'Mahony 

D. Oliver, Jr. 
Eev. T. Phillips 

Very Eev. J. J. Prendergast 
Hon. Geo. C. Pardee 
Hon. James D. Phelan 
Eev. John Power 
Thomas Price 

F. L. Pritchard 
J. C. Quinn 

E. E. Queen 
John C. Quinlan 
Eev. P. J. Quinn 
Eev. M. P. Eyan 
Dr. D. F. Eagan 
Thomas Eeagan 
Charles Wesley Eeed 
Louis Eenard 
Allen Eobinson 

J. D. Eountree 

A. Euef 

Pierce Eayborg 

W. J. Euddick 

Judge A. A. Sanderson 

A. Sbarboro 

W. D. Shea 

Geo. D. Shadburne 

Frank Shay 

Frank T. Shea 

James Shea 

P. Sheridan 

Judge Edward P. Shortall 

Hon. Samuel M. Shortridge 

Charles Sonntag 

W. F. Stafford 

Eev. James Stokes 

J. M. Sullivan 

John T. Sullivan 

Chas. A. Sullivan 



8 



James Smith 

Hon. E. E. Schmitz 

Hon. Frank J. Sullivan 

Judge M. C. Sloss 

Professor Schilling 

Judge J. F. Sullivan 

Eev. W. P. Sullivan 

Frank Sullivan 

Dr. J. W. Smith 

B. J. Sylver 

J. J. Tobin 

Joseph I. Twohig 

Dr. E. E. Taylor 

Joseph S. Tobin 

E. P. E. Troy 

Eobert J. Vance 

Judge John J. Von Nostrand 

Eabbi Jacob Voorsanger 

Eev. Brother Vellesian 

W. C. Watson 

Charles W. Welch 

E. J. Welch 

Wm. J. Wynn 

Max Weisenhutter 

Thomas J. Walsh 

Eev. M. J. Walsh 

J. M. Walsh 

Jos. J. Walsh 

L. F. Walsh 



James Wrenn 

John A. Wright 

Dr. Benjamin Ide Wheeler 

Fairfax H. Wheelan 

Eichard E. White 

William E. White 

Eev. H. H. Wyman 

Eev. P. C. Yorke 

John P. Young 

Eev. Bro. Xenophon 

Eev. P. S. Casey 

Eev. P. E. Mulligan 

Eev. P. T. Moynihan 

Brother Vivian 

Brother Felan 

M. Longhurst 

E. M. darken 

Charles J. Heggerty 

J. Weller 

J. H. Coleman 

Dr. J. G. Morrissey 

Fred. M. Bishop 

Mario Forno 

James A. Bacigalupi 

John Ivancovich 

Col. James E. Power 

Amadeo Giannini 

Emmet P. McCarthy 



Following are the toasts and the introductions com- 
plete, as given at the Dr. Douglas Hyde banquet at the 
Palace Hotel, February 21, 1906: 

JUDGE J. V. COFFEY, Toastmaster. 

To powerfully overthrow the laziness of the Law; 

To stand by the weak and feeble in their hour of distress; 

And the stout one must become (before him) gentle and humane, 

And might must submit to this man's right. 

[This is a pun on the word "must," which is also "Coffey."] 

It is not the purpose nor the province of your chair- 
man to indulge in extended remarks. It is his duty simply 
to act as a sort of moderator, to control the ardent spirits 
of the Celts, without imbibing any too much himself. 

We are here to-night to extend to our guest of honor 
a genuine California Ceiid Mile Failte and congratulate 
him on the success of his mission thus far in America. 

Around these tables are gathered representative men, 
irrespective of race or creed, all by love combined, to 
greet in hospitable intercourse, the founder of the Gaelic 
League, who is here to enlighten us as to the meaning and 
scope of the Celtic revival. 

His mission has been faithfully executed, and it has 
been one of an arduous nature. 

It has been no easy task to instruct our people in the 
principles of which he is the embodiment. He has re- 
sponded to the necessity of diffusing information concern- 
ing a misunderstood movement, which now, thanks to the 
clearness of his exposition, is appreciated in America as 
one of universal interest and importance. 

He has shown us that it is not a political movement, 
in no way interfering with the laudable endeavors of those 

10 




HON. JAMES V. COFFEY 



who are engaged in securing the rights of his countrymen 
to their self-government, but co-operating collaterally 
with them. 

It is ethical, educational, intellectual, industrial, 
national in the broadest sense, for as a nation's life is in 
her language, the revival of its study and the intelligent 
and persevering zeal of its promoters afford ground for 
faith in the restoration of Ireland's national individuality. 

The Gaelic tongue is the natural vehicle of expression 
for many thousands of Irish people ; entire sections of 
the country, particularly in the extreme west and the 
south, in the mountains and along the coast, speak no 
other language than that transmitted orally in its purity 
from remote generations when it was the repository of the 
learning of the schools and the source of an erudite litera- 
ture. 

In attempting the conquest of a country, a primary 
design is to destroy the language of its people. Once 
this is accomplished, the rest is easy, but, owing to the 
Gaelic League, there is prospect that this purpose shall 
be frustrated. 

It has been said that this movement was a sentimental, 
not a practical one. It is both. Necessarily every prac- 
tical movement originates in sentiment. It was sentiment 
that started the Revolutionary fires in America, and en- 
abled us to be here to-night on the eve of a great anniver- 
sary. 

Sentiment is strong with the Irish, and it is good that 
it is so ; it inspires them to do and to endure ; it is the 
poetry in their veins that makes this unique people so 
patient, persistent, and persevering, in spite of privations 
and trials that would produce despair in a less sentimental 

11 



race. They love their land and want to abide in it, and 
one of the means by which that aspiration shall be realized 
is the success of the Gaelic League. 

The Irish people are, as all the world should know, 
hospitable and cordial to the point of prodigality. 

Everywhere one finds kindness and cheerful courtesy, 
combined with self-respect and spirit. 

No matter how poor and lowly, the Irish have a manly 
sense of personal character and pride that betokens capa- 
city to enjoy that freedom to which they aspire and for 
which they are fitting themselves and their children by 
diligent application and self-denial. 

It is claimed for the Irish that they were the fosters 
of classical as well as common instruction when their 
neighboring islands were in the arrears of civilization, 
and certainly there is abundant evidence preserved in the 
archives of antiquities in the national museums to support 
their pretensions. The ancient documents and muniments 
of title to consideration in this respect are as numerous as 
they are curious and interesting, not only to the anti- 
quary, but to all who appreciate these rare relics of a race 
that treasures the testimonies of the times when Ireland 
was an independent nation, the center of liberal science 
and fine arts, and the abode of many forms of industrial 
activity, being rich in natural resources and blessed with 
a fruitful soil and a prosperous population. 

In the process of centuries of oppression and persecu- 
tion conditions changed; poverty became the portion of 
the people, and their opportunities for education were 
diminished, but their desire was never destroyed. 

No matter how grievous their burden of enforced 



12 



ignorance, their appetite for knowledge has been ever 
acute. 

No one who has studied the Irish character closely 
can doubt their innate competency to manage their own 
affairs; their faculty for governing others has been illus- 
trated in many foreign lands, and it cannot rationally be 
disputed that intellectually and morally they have the 
genius as they should have the power of self-government. 
With their land and their language restored, they may be 
allowed to stand alone to demonstrate their self-sustain- 
ing ability. 

With this accomplishment, Ireland shall no longer be 
the "Niobe of nations," "all tears," but standing erect, 
with joyous countenance, radiant with hope, facing the 
future full of promise for a redeemed and regenerated 
nationality. 

It is a far cry from the Golden Gate to the Cove of 
Cork, but when our guest returns across the continent and 
over the farther ocean, he will bear a message and a 
token of substantial recognition from the people of the 
Pacific Coast of their interest in the cause of which he 
is the foremost exponent and evangel. 

DR. DOUGLAS HYDE. 

Delightful, handsome, youthful boy, 
Broad is thy heart and pleasant is thy kiss; 
My grief that I cannot be beside you forever, 
And, my darling, may you go in safety. 
[After preface in the Gaelic language.] 

Gentlemen — I have learned much from my friend 
(Judge Coffey's) speech. I have learned one thing that 
I never heard before, that the Governor of South Carolina 

13 



was guilty of two sentences. Gentlemen, up to this mo- 
ment I was only conscious of the one, and, that I may 
emphasize it, allow me to drink to the health of my host 
to-night. 

Now, the Judge was kind enough to give his own 
translation of that Irish poem, which every man of Irish 
birth who is here to-night ought to be able to read for 
himself. But the Judge was modest. He passed over the 
verse addressed to himself. He will allow me to read it. 
Now, the meaning of that is — Judge, do not blush — "To 
powerfully overthrow the laziness of the law" — that is 
good — "to stand by the weak and feeble in the hour of 
their distress; the stout man must become gentle and 
human in his presence ; and might must submit to this 
man's right." 

I think the upright man has never been better pic- 
tured in literature ; and I tell you what, the Irish nation 
possesses a literature second to none ; and when you see 
these apposite quotations translated into to-morrow's 
press, if they are translated there, you will know what the 
literature is that was able to get so apposite a quotation 
for each of the toasts to-night. 

I can hardly express my feelings when I look around 
upon the guests at this enormous banquet, my hosts. I 
really am without words to express my feeling of the 
unique honor that you have paid me ; and I accept it, 
gentlemen, not as any tribute to me personally, unworthy 
as I am, but I accept it as your tribute to the cause of an 
Irish Ireland. That is our gospel. I accept it as a tribute 
paid in my person to the men and women, my colleagues, 
that I have left behind me in Ireland undergoing the 
burden and the heat of the day — men and women striving 

14 



to realize the ideals of every true Irishman, "Ireland a 
Nation once again." 

I have now traveled through about forty cities of the 
United States, and wherever I have gone I have preached 
the same gospel. Archbishop Montgomery here preaches 
his same Gospel at every altar, wherever he ma}' be. But 
in no city that I have visited have I met so kindly a greet- 
ing, have I met such Irish feelings, or have I met such 
sympathetic Irishmen as in San Francisco. But, gentle- 
men, I will tell you the truth, I expected it. I have always 
understood that this is pre-eminently the spot in all Amer- 
ica where the Irish race had a fair look-in with other 
races. And I have never wavered for one moment in my 
belief that where Irishmen get a fair look-in with other 
races, when other races come to the top, the Irishmen will 
be there before them. 

So, gentlemen, I expected that you would have im- 
pressed upon this city the marks of your face, the marks 
of your kindliness, the marks of your civilization, and 
such a civilization as the Irishman has had. 

Gentlemen, your ancestors, our ancestors, were men 
who for generations possessed the only civilization in 
Europe. It was your ancestors and our ancestors who 
sowed the seeds in every country in the "West of Europe, 
and we must never forget, and never be allowed to forget 
our great race heritage. 

You are the only people who have preserved the record 
or your own past, and preserved it in a literature of your 
own, when the rest of the peoples were plunged in dark- 
ness. You have preserved the longest, the most consecu- 
tive, and the most luminous literary track behind you 



15 



of any people that has preserved its vernacular, except 
Greece alone. 

I am not exaggerating when I say that during all the 
horror and darkness and confusion and ignorance of the 
people in the Middle Ages, Ireland, and Ireland alone, 
held aloft the torch of learning and of piety in the race of 
mankind for between three and four centuries. And, gen- 
tlemen, we do not know it ourselves. We have no univer- 
sity to instruct us. Irish Ireland has no headquarters to 
teach it its own great past, and you look to your English 
books written on the other side of St. George's Channel, 
for those things, and you look in vain. You cannot find 
them. But go over to the mainland of the Continent: 
go to France, our natural ally; go to Germany, our best 
friend as far as literature is concerned ; go to Belgium ; go 
to any of the places of learning on the Continent, and 
there is not a university that will not tell you what I am 
telling you to-night. If you doubt me turn to the pages of 
Windisch of Leipsic ; turn to the pages of Zimmer, the 
great professor of Sanscrit, in Berlin ; turn to Dr. Holger 
Pedersen of Copenhagen, the man whose work on the 
Irish grammar, written in Danish, is acknowledged 
throughout Europe to be the best thing done on that par- 
ticular subject; turn to DArbois de Jubainville, the ven- 
erable professor of Paris; to my friend, George Dodd of 
Brittany; above all, to my friend, Dr. Kuno Meyer of 
Berlin ; and do not forget to turn to the pages of Solomon 
Reinach, the learned Jew of Paris; and, gentlemen, be- 
tween us and men of that race, I have often thought how 
close is the resemblance on the pages of history. 

Turn to those men, and they will tell you what I am 
telling you to-night ; and when it is told you by a tongue 

16 



that is not Irish and by a pen that was never held in the 
hand of an Irish writer, perhaps then yon will believe it. 

Our work in Ireland to-day, and the movement of 
which I have the honor to be President, is engaged upon 
a continuation of that ancient civilization. Were we go- 
ing to allow it to be wiped out of existence? Were we 
going to allow that splendid past of ours to become a 
dead letter, and to exercise no influence whatever upon 
the men who are its great inheritors? We are not. 

We are going to build an Irish nation that shall be the 
rational continuation of the nation as it once was. We 
founded the Gaelic League a dozen years ago as a linguis- 
tic movement, a movement concerned with the ancient 
language of Ireland; but as that movement progressed, 
and as it grew and grew under our hands, nobody was 
more astonished than myself to find it turning out a great 
national movement, and not a linguistic one. 

Some of the side fruits, of the by-products of this 
linguistic movement of ours — and, remember, they were 
only by-products of it — have radically revolutionized 
ethical and social conditions in Ireland to-day. 

Take two of them; take the industrial movement. 
When they founded the Gaelic League we did not think 
of Irish industries. As the League progressed, we found 
that every adherent of the Gaelic League became a warm 
and thoroughgoing supporter of Irish industry in all its 
forms. And we have something to show for it. There 
are our woolen mills; there are our cloth mills. Do you 
know that within the last three years we have doubled 
the output of our cloth mills; we have doubled the out- 
put of our woolen mills; we have trebled the output of 
our paper mills? We have enormously increased every 

17 



minor industry that Ireland possesses; matches, starch, 
blacking, all those things that are beneath the dignity of 
a speaker at this great banquet to mention ; but, remem- 
ber that nations are built upon such pettiness. And we 
are going to build up our nation by a close attention to 
minor details — even the starch and the blacking and 
the matches come into it. 

I have found that in every country in Europe, where 
there has been a linguistic revival, it has invariably been 
accompanied by an industrial revival as well. Belgium, 
Bohemia and Hungary all show it, and we are no excep- 
tion to it. Another thing, there was never a linguistic 
revival of language in Europe attempted that yet failed, 
and do you think that we are going to fail ? Never. 

Another by-product of our movement is the great re- 
vival of temperance in Ireland. I may say, with almost 
complete truth, that of all the people who are working 
heart and soul in the Gaelic League to-day, every one of 
them, except myself and Mr. Thomas Bawn, who is here 
to-night, are practically teetotalers. No doubt I would 
be the same, but it is not expedient for an apostle, like St. 
Paul, who has to be all things to all men, you know. 

But I can claim this for the Gaelic League: It has 
broken up the power of the drink traffic in Ireland, and, 
above all, it has taken the capital city of Ireland, Dublin, 
out of the hands of the saloonkeepers. 

It is something over three years ago now since the 
Gaelic League — this is another by-product of it, you 
never know where we are going to stop — determined that 
St. Patrick's Day must be observed as the proper national 
holiday as the Patron Saints' days of every country are 
observed as national holidays. So we went to the great 

18 



stores of the city; they consented to close. We went to 
the Stock Exchange; we went to the banks and to the 
various big mercantile industries — they all said they 
would close. Then we went on a deputation to the saloon- 
keepers of Dublin, and I never will forget that deputation. 
There was a parish priest, there was a barefooted friar, 
there was a publican himself, there was myself, and there 
was half-a-dozen other rag, tag and bobtail. But, though 
we were insignificant in appearance, faith, we had the 
good-will of the people behind us; and when the publi- 
cans, and they alone, refused to close their houses on St. 
Patrick's Day, we held our great language procession, 
two days later. 

The language procession, walking through the streets 
of Dublin, had branches of the Gaelic League, each branch 
with its own banner borne over its head, and their sympa- 
thizers, walking five abreast, and walking at a good round 
trot, took an hour and forty minutes to pass a given point. 
We struck off enormous cardboard placards, and car- 
ried them at intervals in our procession, and on the 
placards was written, " Don't drink in the publicans' 
houses," "The selfish publicans won't close," "The pub- 
licans spoil St. Patrick's Day." The result was electrical. 
There were one hundred and fifty of them outside our 
offices the next day waiting for closing cards to put in 
their windows. 

That year we closed 40 per cent; the next year we 
closed 50 per cent, and the arrests for drunkenness fell 
from about 130 to 17. This year we closed 60 per cent, 
and no doubt we will keep on 10 per cent and 10 per cent 
until we have closed them all. 

Another thing : We brought forward a bill in Parlia- 

19 



ment then to make St. Patrick's Day what they call a 
bank holiday; that means, a compulsory holiday for gov- 
ernment officials in the postoffices and in government 
banks, and we got it carried without any one raising a 
word of remonstrance. Lord Dunraven, whose name has 
been so prominently connected with devolution in the last 
year or two, had charge of the bill in the House of Lords, 
and he wired over to Dublin and asked what we would 
like to do — would we care to close the public houses by 
compulsion on St. Patrick's Day, or by law, for if so, he 
could get a clause inserted in the House of Lords and do 
it. That telegram was shown to me, and I said : ' ' Certainly 
not. If we cannot close them by force of public opinion 
in Dublin itself, we shall never close them by compulsion 
from London." 

I just tell you that story to indicate the many direc- 
tions into which this language movement has branched 
off; for this language movement is a movement to give 
back to Irishmen their sense of self-respect again. And 
any band of men that aim high are certain, if they do not 
obtain their ultimate goal, of going a long way towards 
it ; and we aim high, for we aim at nothing else than estab- 
lishing a new nation upon the map of Europe. 

Gentlemen, I look forward to a great and emancipated 
Ireland in the future, an Ireland speaking its own lan- 
guage. Oh, gentlemen, if we had such a thing to-day how 
it would react upon the mind and soul of every Irishman 
in America to know that he had his fatherland behind 
him, as the German have their Fatherland. 

We look forward to an Ireland, I say, speaking its 
own language, thinking its own thoughts, writing its own 
books, singing its own songs; to an Ireland that shall 

20 




MOST REV. GEORGE MONTGOMERY 



really be a nationality, as Europe counts nationalities. 
And I cannot say how grateful I am to the Irishmen of 
this great continent for the warm-hearted, the speedy, the 
rapid way in which they took to themselves and assimi- 
lated doctrines that had never been preached in America 
before. 

Gentlemen, I thank you from the bottom of my heart, 
not in my own name, but in the name of the men and the 
women I left behind me, fighting this fight in Ireland. In 
their name I thank you, and in their name I shall thank 
you, for your kindness and your graciousness to me, and 
for the wonderful manner in which you have received me. 

AECHBISHOP MONTGOMERY. 
' ' Civil and Religious Liberty. ' ' 
Render therefore unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and 
render unto God the things that are God's. 

Judge Coffey — At the beginning of the session this 
evening, after we had come across the bridge from the 
sherry to the champagne, and got to the coffee, I said that 
I was here only as a moderator, to control, as far as I 
could, the ardent spirits of the Celts. Before we get 
through I think I shall find myself a very poor controller. 
Meanwhile, I shall endeavor, so far as in me lies, to per- 
form my functions. 

One of the greatest men that ever lived and one of the 
best friends that Ireland ever had was George Washington. 
By a coincidence which is fortunate the eve of the anni- 
versary of his birth is the occasion for the reception to 
Dr. Douglas Hyde; and, in reverence, I pledge a toast, 
standing and in silence, to the memory of George Wash- 
ington. 

(The assembly rises and drinks toast.) 

21 



In the year 1775 — and I ask you your attention for the 
sake of the gentleman whose name I shall presently an- 
nounce — there was a great victory. It was a year of 
difficulty and trouble for the cause of liberty. But there 
was a man in the earliest days of our history, when doubt 
was everywhere, when the outcome was a problem, when 
everything was trembling in the balance, that gave up his 
life for the independence of the United States — the hero 
of Quebec — Richard Montgomery. And that name, hon- 
ored in Ireland and honored in America, has no greater 
representative than the Most Rev. George Montgomery, 
the Coadjutor Archbishop. 

Mr. Chairman, Our Guests, and Gentlemen — In the 
name of His Grace, the Most Rev. Archbishop Riordan, 
and in my own as well, I take this first opportunity of a 
public nature to tender to Dr. Douglas Hyde a most hearty 
welcome in our midst on the part of all whom he repre- 
sents, and invoke a blessing upon that great work to 
which he has so unselfishly consecrated his life. 

Many of Dr. Hyde's readers and auditors may know 
more Gaelic than I do, but none — or at least, I may say, 
few, have appreciated more fully or profited by more 
than I have the information that Dr. Hyde has given us 
upon this great question in the last ten days. 

It certainly requires courage of a high character and 
reserve power for a man to undertake something that has 
never before been attempted, and as Dr. Hyde himself 
expressed it, to revive a dead language and make it again 
the vernacular of a people. In fact a work of that kind 
is so stupendous that many of its best friends ought to be 
pardoned for having some misgivings as to the outcome. 

22 



Nevertheless I feel that we who have listened to Dr. 
Hyde and have read what he has said in the last week or 
so must be renewed in our courage concerning it. 

Somewhat outside of the things that Dr. Hyde himself 
has insisted upon and has exposed to us so humorously 
and upon which he and his co-workers depend and hope 
for success, two things occur to me, great facts that 
are patent, that ought to encourage even the faintest 
hearts and make them believe that at least there is a 
reasonable hope of success. 

The first of these great facts is that the very best 
judges in a case of the kind — educators, scholars and pro- 
fessors, an example of whom we have with us to-night, 
and, generally, literary men — approve the measure and 
give it not only their sympathy but their support, and 
declare that it is not a dream, but a feasible thing — one 
that can and ought to succeed. 

The next great fact, and the one after all and above 
all other things upon which the success of this measure 
depends, is the character of the Irish people themselves. 
How shall I speak of that character in connection with 
the Gaelic League and in connection with my subject, 
Civil and Religious Liberty? 

Gentlemen, I believe that if we were to ask the con- 
servative leaders in the great world movements of which 
we are a part and by which all of us are affected — if we 
were to ask the conservative leaders of what we call 
thought, the great interests known as political questions, 
the commercial and the industrial world to try to put into 
one single sentence what are the principles that underlie 
these world movements, what are the principles that give 
them life, that give them hope, I believe that they would 

23 



be found to write this sentence — these principles are con- 
tained in these words — "it is a world struggle for civil 
and religious liberty." 

If that is true, if the aspirations for civil and religious 
liberty embrace the highest ideals and the hopes of men, 
I contend that for the last three hundred years and more 
and in the very best sense of the words of civil and reli- 
gious liberty, the noblest examples of self-sacrifice made 
in behalf of these ideals have been made by the Irish 
nation. 

To attempt any great thing, we naturally look to the 
history of individuals, and to nations, for incentives, for" 
examples to inspire and encourage ; and, gentlemen, I say 
that this is one of the contributions that the Irish people 
have given to the world. 

It is true that in the name of civil and religious lib- 
erty mistakes have been made and crimes have been com- 
mitted, but we shall be told that, notwithstanding that, 
these things are inevitable, these things come from the 
selfishness of men. They are matters that may impede its 
progress, but they cannot as a matter of fact entirely 
stop its onward course. Therefore, we look for encour- 
agement and for ideals; and therefore I say here, that 
the Irish people have given us that as an inheritance. 

I care not who studies the history of Ireland, friend 
or foe, if the student critic can come to the study of it 
with this disposition that we can rise to the plane of simple 
common honesty, no matter what else he may see in the 
history of Ireland, he will see this so prominently that it 
will force itself upon him; and he will have to confess 
that in the world there never was a nation that was sub- 
jected to such trying ordeals in the pursuit of that one 

24 



thing; and never yet a nation that bore herself more 
gallantly with equal and unswerving courage of principle. 
I say this is the character of the Irish people, and why 
should not Dr. Hyde and others feel that they can build 
upon character like that ? 

We of America are glad to learn from Dr. Hyde that in 
Ireland, with a broad platform of an Irish Ireland, her 
whole people are practically united; and that in that 
declaration there is no party, there is no sect, there is no 
creed, and its only enemies are ignorance, anti-Irish 
bigotry, race hatred and Trinity College, Dublin. 

It has been said that Irishmen have fought success- 
fully everybody's battles but their own. Gentlemen, I 
believe that in the providence of God, the battle that God 
gave Ireland to fight is precisely this one of civil and 
religious liberty. And as such she has not fought in vain. 
No battle for the right has ever been lost absolutely. 
"Truth crushed to earth shall rise again, as the eternal 
things of God are always just." 

Gentlemen, such being the case, this evening, as we 
tender our congratulations to our distinguished guest, in 
whom we are more honored than he is by our presence 
here, I say, that we may indulge the hope and the belief 
on his testimony that Ireland has entered upon her last 
and a successful battle for her language and for her 
nationality; which, I interpret to mean, her share of civil 
and religious liberty. 

May we not even hope that Dr. Hyde and some of us 
may live to see under the able leadership of himself and 
his coadjutors an Irish parliament sitting in Dublin legis- 
lating upon Irish affairs? And when that happy event is 
consummated, we need scarcely say to Dr. Hyde, make the 

25 



legislation as nearly as you can like that which we enjoy 
in the land of Columbia. 

JAMES D. PHELAN. 
"The United States." 
He landed thereafter upon another great Island, where he be- 
held a small church and a fortress there, an ancient and gray cleric 
in the Church. Maelduin accosts him: "Whence art thou?" saith 
he. "I am the fifteenth man of the people of Brendan of Birr. 
We went upon our pilgrmage out into the ocean until we fared 
unto this Island. ' ; 

Judge Coffey — I am advised, gentlemen, to talk Irish 
to you, but I am not equal to this occasion. As I look at 
the toast list, for once it is beyond me, and so is the toast. 
But it is not beyond the respondent. 

The gentleman who is to respond to this toast is a 
man equal to the occasion, and to every occasion that I 
have ever seen him engage in. 

The son of a man of strong and original character, 
integrity, and foresight, he has in him the best qualities 
of his ancestors. 

He has studied the condition of California and of San 
Francisco locally ; and has gone abroad and studied there, 
and he has brought the benefits of that study to this place, 
and applied them practically. 

He has done what few men in his position have done — 
utilized the advantages of his wealth for the benefit of the 
city in which he was born, and he has done it without 
ostentation. 

He has realized the future of San Francisco, and de- 
voted his talents and energies to the cultivation of the 
useful and beautiful in its reconstruction. 

There has never been a cause of Ireland to which he 

26 



HON. JAMES D. PHELAN 



lias not been a willing contributor, and lie has been a 
most enthusiastic supporter of this present movement. 

As Mayor of San Francisco, the last under the old sys- 
tem and the first under the new Charter, which he was 
instrumental in securing and was intrusted with inaugu- 
rating, for five years he strove, amidst great difficulties, to 
improve the condition of civic affairs. 

The matter of municipal administration is a very im- 
portant factor in its relation to the government of the 
whole country, and in that respect it is appropriate that 
one who has striven so earnestly on the lines indicated 
should respond to ' ' The United States of America. ' ' Hon. 
James D. Phelan. 

Mr. Toastmaster, Your Grace, Dr. Hyde, and Gentle- 
men — I am not a little embarrassed by the sentence of the 
Court, because, among other reasons, the great subject 
which has been given to me as a theme this evening, in 
contemplation of its extent, is of itself sufficiently em- 
barrassing. "We have with us, however, a guest who is 
engaged in the heroic work of linguistically, industrially 
and socially upbuilding or restoring a nation, and if I 
can, in any way, connect the United States — the greatest 
nation on the face of the earth — with the aspirations and 
hopes of the nation for which he is laboring, Ireland, I 
shall at any rate serve a useful purpose. 

He has come here not only to give, but to receive. If 
the history of our country suggests anything to him, cer- 
tainly the contribution which he takes back will be help- 
ful. 

Following the remarks of His Grace the Archbishop, 
it is very easy to see, without further explanation from 

27 



me, the intimate relations which exist between the United 
States of America and. the nation of Ireland, whose aspira- 
tions always have been, and are to-day, for civil and reli- 
gious freedom. 

Ireland has been struggling these many centuries, and 
has laboriously fought its way, but the magic flight of 
the United States to nationality, over a hundred years 
ago, may tell Dr. Hyde the secret of our strength. "The 
race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong. ' ' 

One of the proudest boasts of Englishmen — using, I 
must admit, the very language of Daniel Webster, our own 
orator and statesman — in describing the power of their 
country, was that "Its morning drum-beat, following the 
sun and keeping company with the hours, encircled the 
earth daily with one continuous and unbroken strain of 
the martial airs of England." But when that is quoted 
by an Englishman, he either does not know or conven- 
iently forgets, that Webster thus described the power and 
strength of England in order to show that the American 
Colonies, comparatively without numbers, without arma- 
ments, nor fleets, nor munitions of war, were able to over- 
come Great Britain in the War of the Revolution. 

And what was that power? It was the spirit of the 
cause ; it was their love of liberty ; it was their hatred of 
oppression. And, possessed of this spirit, the soldier of 
the Revolutionary day became strong as a giant. A dwarf 
may have a giant for a friend, and thus be master of a 
giant's strength; and they had as their friend the cause 
of civil and religious liberty, which animated them in their 
exploits and finally crowned their efforts with success. 

And that England, which has for all these centuries 
laid its oppressive hand upon Ireland, making it tribu- 

28 



tary country, destroying its tokens of nationality and 
driving its people into exile — that England repeated the 
invasion of the United States in 1812, and its troops en- 
tered the capital at Washington. But the redoubtable 
soldiers of the younger days of America met the insulting 
foe, and again did the spirit of liberty prevail. 

They tell a story of Henry Clay, who, during that war, 
went as Peace Commissioner to England, and, meeting the 
Foreign Secretary, Lord Romier, was told very emphati- 
cally that there was no further question about the suc- 
cess of British arms in America, because against New 
Orleans the government had sent that brave soldier, 
General Packinham, and the veteran forces of England. 
Henry Clay was then offered a wager on the outcome, 
after the manner of the times, which he speedily accepted, 
because, as he stated, he knew the character and ani- 
mating spirit of the frontiersmen at New Orleans, and, 
furthermore, knew that they were led by Andrew Jackson. 
I see that you recognize in him the son of a native-born 
Irishman. Shortly after that, at a public function, we 
are told that Lord Romier approached Henry Clay, and, 
handing him the amount of the wager, said: "Mr. Clay, 
I give you the amount of the wager. I am in receipt 
just now of very sad news. General Packinham and his, 
army have been defeated. I cannot account for the re- 
peated successes of American arms, except it be upon the 
theory that there is a special Providence that watches over 
idiots, drunkards and the American people." 

Now, we will not attribute all our success to a special 
Providence. There are other lands equally well entitled 
to providential aid. We have been told by a most zealous 
if not fanatical churchman that "We must trust in God 



29 



and keep our powder dry." That is what the Americans 
did, and I speak of Americans in the sense of men devoted 
to the cause of liberty, which is the test of their nation- 
ality. 

It is interesting for this audience to know, as they no 
doubt know as well as I, that the men who, under Provi- 
dence, won those important engagements of the Eevolu- 
tionary Wars were largely of Irish stock. We are told 
that there was an investigation into the causes of the 
failure of the American wars by Parliament in 1785, and 
the testimony showed that one-half of the Continental 
army was composed of Irishmen. 

We can appreciate from that showing the debt which 
the United States owes perhaps to Ireland, a debt which, 
on occasions like this, it tries feebly to repay. 

However, it is not numerical strength alone that con- 
quers. Otherwise, we might despair for Ireland, whose 
population during the last sixty years has been reduced 
one-half by emigration. 

When Great Britain imposed unjust taxes upon the 
Colonies those Colonies felt "Oppression's lightest finger 
as a mountain weight. ' ' The tax on tea was insignificant ; 
they might have borne that burden; but throughout the 
Colonies there was but one sentiment : that if this tax 
were tolerated on the principle it is imposed, they would 
be slaves. 

It is indeed a surprising thing that those Colonies, with 
such little provocation, should apparently have risen as 
one man, poorly equipped as they were, against the might 
of England. I think the secret of it may be found in the 
fact that the numerous Celtic population of the Colonies 
of those days knew intimately from actual acquaintance 

30 



the character of British oppression. They knew that ex- 
termination, they knew that confiscation, they knew that 
persecution had overwhelmed the native races of Ireland 
and driven them across the sea. From that persecution 
they had fled ; and it was only necessary for them to inti- 
mate to their compatriots that English oppression meant 
destruction, to cause them, as they did, to rise up as one 
man. They knew that the struggle involved their rights ; 
it involved their families; it involved their children. It 
involved their very existence, if they were to be tributary 
to the old country. And well might they say, as they did 
say, in contemplation of the British oppression at home, 
"Give us liberty or give us death!" 

So, what the United States is — what this glorious struc- 
ture which has conferred upon its people so many benefits 
is, must find its origin in Ireland and in other oppressed 
lands ; because free government has progressed from stake 
to stake and from scaffold to scaffold. Therefore, on an 
occasion like this, we must humbly, possessed though we 
be of the greatest country in the world, express our grati- 
tude to those who have gone before. Of that Irish race 
Dr. Hyde is a conspicuous member, the exponent of the 
self-same cause in which the Colonies engaged and which 
conferred upon us our independence and our nationality. 

Disraeli said that he wished that the republic of the 
Puritans had blended with the tribes of the Wilderness. 
Then, he thought, that America would have a unique 
nationality. Our nation builders simply looked to the es- 
tablishment of a government which would grant to the 
people all those rights that were denied at home, the right 
to life, to liberty, and to property. We must look for 
American nationality, not in the language which the peo- 

31 



pie use to express their ideas, but in the ideas themselves ; 
not in the color of their skins, but in the color of their 
minds ; and by that test all nations of the world that have 
come here and sought asylum have found themselves 
speedily assimilated into the body of American citizenship. 

Perhaps we have too much freedom, if you can imagine 
such a thing. As was said to a French king in derision, 
"Sire, you are too fond of liberty!" I remember a Ger- 
man fellow-citizen, in making a speech, saying, "This is 
a free country, and we must not be tyrannized over even 
by our own principles; we must use moderation in all 
things, even in the pursuit of virtue." 

So, very often in our success we pervert the meaning 
of this glorious heritage. But what we do know is, that 
the American nationality has given us free laws ; that the 
fathers of this Republic have reared an edifice capable of 
shielding men of all opinion who love liberty and hate 
oppression. 

We have laws of our own making, but over us is the 
Constitution, which is practically immutable, which is 
high above the storms of passion and caprice, which 
stands there as the palladium of oureliberties, guarantee- 
ing right to life, liberty and property. Underneath that 
is the great body of laws, which are malleable to our 
hand, which are subject to the dictates of majorities, and 
which yield themselves to every popular demand. These 
laws have for these hundred years stood strong, capable 
of meeting every emergency, and showing the elasticity 
of the system which has been given to us in these United 
States. While we may complain from time to time, the 
only just complaint, I think, you will find upon investiga- 
tion concerns the enforcement of these laws. The laws for 



32 



the most part meet every exigency; but sometimes there 
are men in executive offices who fail to give proper en- 
forcement to those laws which have been given to us by 
a legislature responsible to the popular voice. 

While speaking to the sentiment of the United States, 
it would be a great omission this day to overlook the 
President of the United States. Theodore Roosevelt is 
brave, resourceful, honorable and capable ; and if we can 
eulogize the living, upon him we can safely confer a place 
second only to Washington in his conscientious and 
scrupulous regard for the duties of his office. 

The worthy toastmaster has referred to the fact that 
to-morrow is the birthday of the greatest citizen-soldier 
which the Republic has produced. That reminds me of the 
eulogy which was pronounced upon Washington by Charles 
Phillips, the Irish orator, when he said that "No country 
can claim him; no people can appropriate him; he is the 
gift of Providence to the human race ; his fame is eternity, 
and his residence is creation." Therefore, he belongs as 
well to the Irish nation as to the American nation ; and if 
there is anything inspiring in his career, let us give him to 
Ireland to-night. He builded us a nation. He constructed 
it in the field, and he perpetuated it in the council; and 
Dr. Hyde is building a nation on the old ruins of Hibernia. 
Douglas Hyde may fittingly take to himself, in the fullness 
of time, the credit of writing Robert Emmet's epitaph. 

I will simply say, in view of the fact that there are 
many gentlemen to follow, that the United States is as 
strong to-day as it was at any time in its history. It may 
have departed from the simplicity of its early years, but 
our civilization has become more complex. Our popula- 
tion has enormously increased ; the United States has ex- 

33 



tended from ocean to ocean — aye, it has gone beyond, and 
its protecting aegis is now spread over the islands of the 
Pacific. It has become a world power, feared, respected, 
and loved. At the same time it has preserved itself as a 
refuge for the oppressed ; it has handed down to us with- 
out defilement the Ark of the Covenant — the Constitution 
and the laws, the institutions which were given to us by 
Washington and his colleagues. It is a country which 
is destined, in a greater degree still, to uplift humanity. 

There is nothing for which men struggle in Poland, in 
Hungary or in Ireland which is not found here in the best 
and truest sense ; because the people, under our system, 
absolutely have the molding of their own destinies. Their 
rights are preserved by the Constitution, and their free- 
dom of speech and of conscience and of the press, make 
them, in reviewing the history of the nations of the world, 
citizens favored above any other. Rome and Greece, 
when free, in the height of their glory, still had slaves and 
bondsmen, an element which caused Washington to grieve 
for the early Republic. But, at tremendous sacrifice, we 
have abolished slavery. 

If the Father of his Country should return to us to- 
night, and should look back, over the span of years, he 
would find his Farewell Address, that message from a lov- 
ing father, respected and observed. We have avoided the 
perils which he exposed ; we have, so far as invention and 
progress would permit us, remained in a happy and re- 
mote situation with respect to Europe. We have suffered 
no loss by usurpation; we have preserved the independ- 
ence of the judiciary, the legislature and the executive. 
Perhaps in a small degree, but yet not in a dangerous 
degree, have we transgressed his advice concerning inter- 



3-1 




HON. GEORGE C. PARDEE 



ference in the affairs of other nations; and yet, there is 
some obligation upon the greatest nation of the world to 
assert its power. The moral influence of the United States 
cannot be ignored; and if that moral influence, which is 
the creation of free conscience and free speech and free 
press in America, can serve in any way other and less 
favored countries, still galling under the yoke of oppres- 
sion and yearning for freedom, we must not be chary 
of our good offices; wherever they are exerted, they are, 
or should be, exerted in the interest of justice, in the inter- 
est of freedom, and in the interest of peace. 

May this government's fame never be dimmed; may 
its usefulness never be abridged ; may it remain a refuge 
for the oppressed of all lands, and may the people who 
have its destiny in their hands hold it sacred as a great, 
strong nation, always free, always prosperous, always pro- 
gressive, and always triumphant! 

GOVERNOR PARDEE. 

"The State of California." 

It is a land the most beautiful to be found in the world. It 

is the land of most fame that is now beneath the sun. The trees 

are bending under fruits and blossoms and foliage, growing to 

the very tops of the branches. 

Judge Coffey — The next toast is in pure Gaelic, and 
the respondent will produce the original. He is the Gov- 
ernor of a great land, and the most beautiful to be found 
in the world. This is the translation ; he is the author of 
the original. "It is a land the most beautiful to be found 
in the world. It is the land of most fame that is now 
beneath the sun. The trees are bending under fruits and 
blossoms and foliage, growing to the very tops of the 
branches." 

35 



He is a sympathizer with the Gaelic League, but he is 
not a politician. He is a statesman, broad-minded, toler- 
ant, never looking out for his own prospects, but always 
for the good of the people. 

He is, like many around us, a native son of California, 
and he has done credit to the State of his birth, and has 
made an excellent record as her chief magistrate, Gov- 
ernor Pardee. 

Mr. Toastmaster and Gentlemen — Here on the western 
coast of a great continent that, only four hundred years 
ago, was first discovered by civilized man, we are welcom- 
ing the apostle of an almost extinct tongue, once spoken 
by many millions of victorious people, who were allies 
of Greece when she was mistress of the world in war and 
in the arts and sciences, and who once were strong enough 
to humble even imperial Rome. Here, on the western 
coast of the American continent, we welcome him who has 
done so much to rescue from the limbo of dead languages 
the speech immortalized by Ossian and the Celtic bards. 
We welcome him as the representative of that great people 
who, 3,000 years ago, were masters of Europe and domi- 
nated the lands now held by those of other bloods. We 
welcome him as one who loves the language of his remote 
forebears and is doing yeoman service toward its preser- 
vation. 

A language, like him who speaks it, is a living thing 
that has its infancy, grows to sturdy manhood, and, de- 
clining into old age, dies and leaves behind it but slight 
traces of its former strength and beauty. The stronger 
the people, the longer will their language persist, although 
those who speak it may be dispersed and conquered. The 
ancient Celts were strong and virile; they swept before 

36 



them and conquered all the peoples whose lands they 
coveted, from end to end of Europe. And, although they 
lost their proud prominence 2,000 years and more ago, 
their language, strong and virile, and proving the strength 
and virility of those who boast the Celtic blood, still 
persists a spoken tongue in this twentieth century. Con- 
temporary with Herodotus, Xenophon, Plato and Aristotle, 
and allies of Alexander the Great, they conquered Carth- 
age and that land which is now Spain ; they invaded what 
is now Italy, overran the land that is now Germany and 
France, and planted colonies in Asia Minor and the British 
Isles. 

Great were the ancient Celts in war, the arts and 
sciences. Poetry and song were sweet to their ears and 
easy to their tongues. They immortalized, as did the 
Greeks and Romans, their warriors, and delighted in the 
mighty deeds of their heroes. Like the Norsemen, they 
gave attentive ear to Nature's many moods, and twisted 
into fantastic tales of gods and demi-gods the mysteries 
of natural phenomena. 

But the great, masterful nation of the Celts, as all 
other nations have or will, reached the zenith of its 
powers, and, declining, was merged, except in a few out- 
lying fastnesses, into the midst of those who overcame it. 
Greece and Rome left behind them many relics of their 
departed greatness. Egypt's ancient tombs and temples 
challenge, even in the magnificence of their ruins, our 
admiration. But the Celtic race, contemporary with and 
in many things their equal, by some mischance of fate, 
has left behind it only few and scattered fragments of its 
former greatness, that whisper up to him who under- 
stands them tales of greatest human interest. 



37 



It would be sad indeed if all the history of Celtic great- 
ness should perish forever from off the face of the earth. 
But such would be its sure fate were it not for the unselfish 
efforts of those who, like him in whose honor we are met 
here to-night, are giving to collect and preserve the few 
and scattered fragments the centuries, with their destroy- 
ing fingers, have left for us to contemplate. The lapse of 
time, the ruthless hand of ignorance and the devastation 
of war have laid waste and destroyed many of the most 
valuable monuments of antiquity upon which the utmost 
energies of human genius were employed. Greater ruin 
have they hardly ever wrought than upon the Celts and 
the monuments of Celtic hands and Celtic minds. 

Bishop Berkeley's prophetic words, "Westward the 
course of empire takes its way," never received a more 
apt illustration than that presented here to-night. Three 
thousand years ago your forefathers, and perhaps mine, 
were dominating the lands where other races are now 
supreme. The great State of California, greater in its 
future possibilities than all the other lands upon this 
earth, was then unknown, undreamed of. Persia and 
Egypt, Greece and Rome, Spain, Portugal and Holland, 
France, Germany and England, each in its turn has been 
mistress of the world, around it entwining the moving 
history of mankind. To-day these United States of ours 
occupy as once did your forefathers' land, the center of 
the world's stage of action. And here, with Greece's ceru- 
lean sky and Italy's golden sun, the great Pacific Medi- 
terranean at our feet, its surges sounding in our very 
ears, here, where Nature, ever kind and gentle, woos, but 
never terrifies ; here, to-night, in this land of golden sands 
and golden fruit and golden flowers ; here, to-night, the 

38 




HON. W. H. BEATTY 



men and women of California, worthy successors, let us 
hope, of the Celtic race, bid you welcome as the represent- 
ative of your mighty forefathers, and wish you, in the 
name of human knowledge, human wisdom and human 
progress, Godspeed and full success in all you undertake. 

MAYOK SCHMITZ. 
"The City of San Francisco." 
What is yonder fortress very fine and the most exquisite also 
that eye has ever beheld, towards the which we are now journey- 
ing, or who is the high chieftain who is over this fortress? 

As Chief Magistrate of the City of San Francisco it 
gives me great pleasure to welcome the guest of the even- 
ing, Dr. Douglas Hyde. This town owes much to the 
Irish race, and the names on our streets bear witness to 
the activity of the members of that race in California's 
metropolis. I hope that this greeting to Dr. Hyde will not 
stop with mere words. He is here to accumulate the 
sinews of war in his gallant fight to restore Irish nation- 
ality. This is no mean city, and there should be no 
mean response to his appeal for funds. I hope that San 
Francisco will do so much better than all the cities of the 
East that they will take pattern by her and give Dr. 
Hyde such a fund that his movement will be properly 
financed. 

CHIEF JUSTICE BEATTY. 
' ' The Judiciary. ' ' 

This is no court without acts, without laws, without rules, nor 
no court of despoiling, such as thou hast ever been accustomed to, 
this court which took its rise from courteous hosts, but it is the 
court of the pitiful, of the virtues and of virgins. 

Judge Coffey — In the galaxy of guests to-night there 
is no one whom we more delight to honor than the Chief 
Justice of California. 

39 



He lias presided for many years over our highest appel- 
late court, and has done his duty without fear or favor. 

His characteristics are probity, learning, thorough- 
ness, expedition, the essential judicial virtues. 

Mr. Chairman, Most Reverend Archbishop, Dr. Hyde — 
"The Judiciary" is a term of ambiguous meaning. In one 
sense it signifies a department of the Government, or that 
system of tribunals to which the judicial authority has 
been committed, while in another sense it designates the 
body of Judges who, for the time being, preside in the 
various tribunals. 

Considering the excellence of the system established 
by the Constitution of California and the perfect equality 
of rights which it accords to all persons, native and for- 
eign, there would be nothing surprising in the fact, if in 
every such gathering as this we should turn for a moment 
from the consideration of lighter topics to render our 
grateful homage to an institution so beneficent in its de- 
sign. And if I were as modest as perhaps I should be, 
I would put aside the compliment to the body in whose 
behalf I am called upon to speak by assuming that the 
toast which your chairman has announced was exclusively 
addressed to that cold abstraction — Article VI of the Cali- 
fornia Constitution. But if I did consistency would re- 
quire me to confine myself to an elaboration of the marvel- 
ous symmetry and perfection of that feature of our funda- 
mental law, and I gravely fear that such a discourse would 
be far from edifying to the guest in whose honor this 
festival has been organized, and especially wearisome to 
the rest of the company. Therefore, in mercy to him and 
you, and for my own satisfaction, I am disposed to take a 

40 



less formidable view of the matter, and to confine myself 
in the few remarks I shall have to make, to some refer- 
ence to the men who have been chosen to administer our 
judicial system, and especially those men in whom our dis- 
tinguished guest may be disposed to feel the greatest in- 
terest. 

He will, I am sure, be gratified to learn, or, if he 
already knows the fact, it will still be gratifying to have 
it restated, that from the time of the American occupation 
of California, and even before that event, men of Irish 
nativity and of Irish descent have at all times borne a 
prominent part in every movement by which its destiny 
has been shaped. They have filled the most prominent 
posts in the Executive, Legislative and Judicial Depart- 
ments of the Government. They have represented us in 
both branches of the National Congress, and they have 
represented us in the Army and Navy. This statement 
cannot be better illustrated, than by the following list 
of names of Judges now or recently serving in that 
capacity : 

There are Justice McKenna of the Supreme Court of 
the United States ; my genial associate, Justice Lorigan 
of the Supreme Court of California, and Justice Mc- 
Laughlin of the Court of Appeal. In the Superior Court, 
going back only twenty years, we have Judges James 
E. and D. J. Murphy, Judges Mahon, Corcoran, Sulli- 
van, Coffey, Finn, F. W. Lawler and W. P. Lawlor, 
Dougherty, Rooney, Sweeney, Conly, Kelly, Dooling, 
Dunne, Murasky, Kerrigan, Shields, McSorley, Maguire, 
Toohy. 

These, and many others whose names I do not now 
recall, are all among the living. Among the dead are 

41 



my predecessor, Chief Justice Morrison, whom I knew 
as long ago as 1853, before he entered upon that public 
career which ended in the Chief Justiceship. Another, 
who has more recently passed away, was my warm- 
hearted and esteemed associate, Judge Fitzgerald, who, 
after leaving the Bench, served a term as Attorney- 
General of the State. Another was Judge T. H. Rearden, 
of this county, who was better known and will be longer 
remembered for his elegant scholarship and literary 
faculty + han as a Judge. Of the many others whom I 
did no1 know personally I shall not attempt to speak. 
But among the living there is one whom I have never 
yet mentioned because he has never been a Judge in 
California, but who yet belongs to us. 

Many of you will remember an occasion, a few years 
ago, when, in another room of this hotel, the citizens of 
San Francisco banqueted the Hon. James F. Smith, in 
honor of his then recent appointment to a place on the 
highest Court of the Philippine Islands. He had left 
San Francisco only a year or two before as Colonel of 
the First California Regiment; he had been promoted 
for gallant service to the rank of General. He had in 
the capacity of Governor pacified one of the most unruly 
islands of the Philippine group, and for these varied 
services, and in recognition of his ability and character, 
had been finally promoted to the Bench. His fellow- 
citizens honored themselves by publicly indorsing the 
fitness of his appointment, and I hope sincerely he has 
been as happy in the administration of his office as I 
choose to imagine him. 

But I must not trespass further upon your patience, 
and in concluding I will only express the hope that Dr. 

42 




HON. FRANK J. SULLIVAN 



Hyde will find in the generous recognition which the 
character and abilities of his countrymen have received 
in the land of their adoption some consolation for the 
loss sustained by the land of their nativity when they 
joined the tide of emigration to these western shores. 

FRANK J. SULLIVAN. 
"The Exiles of Erin." 

Cold is the wind upon me this March day, and Erin, my darling, 
farewell forever, and I voyaging across the brine. Across the 
brine, my grief, my trouble. Since I am departing from thee, 
beloved darling, a blessing and twenty upon thee, beloved, from my 
innermost heart, a blessing and a thousand, and Erin, my darling, 
farewell forever. 

Judge Coffey — Among the earliest of our pioneers 
came across the plains in 1844 a sturdy and stalwart man, 
John Sullivan, formerly the owner of this very Palace 
Hotel site. Large-hearted, charitable, generous, enterpris- 
ing, he contributed largely to the building of this city. 
His sterling equalities were transmitted to his children, 
and we have here the senior scion, a native of San Fran- 
cisco, whose enthusiastic zeal and executive energy have 
done so much to bring about the success of this celebra- 
tion. He has honored his constituency by his service in 
the Senate of this State, and added to the beauty of 
San Francisco by his gratuitous labors as Park Commis- 
sioner. He is none the less an American because he is 
faithful to the land of his forefathers, and in proof of 
that faith has perpetuated by a monument on the field 
of Fontenoy the memory of the heroic soldiers who there 
changed defeat into victory. 

"And Fontenoy, famed Fontenoy, had been a Waterloo, 
Were not these exiles ready then, fresh, vehement and true." 

43 



I introduce to you Mr. Frank J. Sullivan, who will 
respond to the "Exiles of Erin." 

Mr. Toastmaster — It is indeed a difficult task for one 
to make an address at 12 :30 at night, and hold his audi- 
ence. You remember that, in one of the cowboy towns 
in the far West, it was a habit of some of our free Ameri- 
cans to take a shot at the poor piano-players in the 
public saloons. I have no doubt they deserved it in 
many cases. But as a result saloon-keepers hung up 
signs on which appeared in large letters these words: 
"Please don't shoot at the piano-player. He is doing the 
best he can." 

At this late hour I feel I am like the poor piano- 
player in the Wild West, but I will do the best I can. 

It is not without emotion that I heard you as toast- 
master refer to my honored father. Yes, he was one of 
the pioneers of 1844, who discovered the Truckee Pass. 
He brought property in this city in 1846, when it was 
Yerba Buena. History records that he discovered $20,000 
in gold nuggets, in one place, in the rich claim known 
even to-day by his name as Sullivan's Creek, Tuolumne 
county. This spot where I am now addressing you, cov- 
ered by the Palace and Grand Hotels, was owned by 
him. He made a gift of this Palace Hotel property to 
the orphan children of San Francisco. He did more to 
earn the good-will of the people of this city. He was 
the founder and first president of the Hibernia Savings 
and Loan Society, one of the greatest savings banks in 
the world. I think this is a pretty fair record for an 
Irish exile. But what I admired in him was: He lived 
and died an honest man ; at all times he had a sympathy 



44 



for the wage-worker; and he was always proud of Ire- 
land and her people. 

The subject to which I propose to address myself this 
evening is one which cannot be properly treated in a short 
address. The words of Virgil in truth apply to the exiles 
of Erin. "Quae regio in terris nostri non plena laboris. " 
What land and what people have not seen the persecuted 
yet light hearted exile of Erin ! 

With a history which touches at the very creation of 
the world, with an early recorded civilization superior 
to that of any other early pagan people, with a mission- 
ary zeal for the Christian faith rarely equaled and never 
excelled, with the virtues of heroism, hospitality and 
generosity in every act of life, with a womanhood of the 
purest and a manhood of the bravest character, with a 
love for their own more intense than that of any race 
on earth, this remarkable people has been a wanderer 
on the face of the great globe. No other nation (except 
possibly the Jewish) has experienced such reverses of 
fortune, or has been compelled to live among strangers. 
No other people has undergone such continued and per- 
sistent persecution without abandoning its love for either 
the faith of its fathers or its nationality. The Irish race 
has relinquished neither the one nor the other. As Wen- 
dell Phillips truly said: "After 700 years, Ireland still 
stands with the national flag in one hand and the crucifix 
of Catholicity in the other." 

It has been claimed that the exile of the Irish was 
voluntary and involuntary. Voluntary, because Irishmen 
left their native land to win fame and fortune, before the 
the oppression of England forced them to fly, and further 
that this exodus commenced in the reign of Henry VIII. 

45 



To my mind, there never was a voluntary exile of Erin, 
because the very term exile means the contrary. Why 
should there be in the case of one of the most fruitful and 
beautiful islands of earth? I can imagine that such a 
thing is possible where the sun shines but seldom, where 
the flowers never bloom, where the chill of winter freezes 
the very blood in the veins — where, in fine, Nature is a 
cruel stepmother; but in the case of Ireland, who can say 
that this has ever been the case? 

I have seen many parts of the world, but I have yet to 
see any country lovelier than Ireland. Even now, the 
scenes that I witnessed a few months ago pass before me — 
I see again the fertile valleys with the green fields, divided 
by hedges of holly and hawthorn, the gentle sloping hills 
with the yellow furze ; the limestone roads, carefully 
kept, which stretch out on all sides, like so many slim 
and long serpents, white and glistening in the bright 
sunlight ; the pale blue sky, across whose face the white 
clouds chase each other as if in sportive glee — the whole 
scene enlivened by the presence of a lofty, slender round 
tower of past ages, or a Runic cross, or a ruined abbey 
overgrown with ivy, or a castle of feudal days, now shorn 
of all its warlike pomps and only adding to the charm of 
the landscape — all these I see now as I saw then, and I 
say now, as I said then, ' ' only a demon could drive a peo- 
ple from such a blessed land." 

I will not dwell on the painful reasons why the Irish 
people were obliged to leave this dear isle. They are 
known to all the world. The Englishman is now being 
judged and will be judged. He is now making his case 
before the world, and a bad case it is. He is beginning to 
realize that Almighty God does not settle His accounts 

46 



every Saturday night. He commences to understand that 
every drop of blood drawn with a lash or otherwise will 
be paid with another drawn by the sword. 

So saith the Lord, and I believe His judgments are 
just. I believe that the moral law applies to nations as 
well as individuals. No crime can pass without its pen- 
alty. If that be so, who will foretell what England must 
suffer for her conduct to Ireland? Some wit, accounting 
for English hatred of Ireland, said regretfully that British 
temper was soured by the Irish sea — the sixty miles of 
water which separates England from Ireland. I say it is 
a blessing in disguise; it is the best thing between them. 
English misrule is seen in the fact that an Irish exile 
can be found in every part of the world, and I sup- 
pose would be found in every part outside of it, if 
there was room for a man to put his foot there. An 
amusing tale is told of, I think, Father O'Leary of 
Cork, who was delegated to visit an Indian chief, on 
the sea coast of South Africa. The African chief, sur- 
rounded by his numerous wives and children, received him 
in great state. The interpreter, in explaining the object 
of the visit, was rather long-winded. The chief grew 
impatient. Finally, he broke out in the choicest English, 
with a strong Cork brogue: "Arrah! Dear Father 
O'Leary, talk in English; don't you know me? I am 
Michael 'Flaherty of King street in the city of Cork." 

I have often asked myself what power saved the Irish 
race from annihilation, not alone in the trials with the 
Saxon, but before his arrival, in the hand-to-hand struggle 
with the Dane. The philosophy of history teaches us the 
reason. It shows that a Providence regulates all things. 



47 



The will of man is the apparent instrument, but a 
Greater Power still controls his destiny. Who shall say 
that the hand of Providence is not seen in the history of 
the exiles of Erin? "Who were these exiles? 

The various countries of Europe in the sixth, seventh 
and eighth centuries make reply. 

There was Fridolen, a man of learning and sanctity. 
There was the cultured St. Gall, whose name is still 
venerated throughout Switzerland. There was St. Colum- 
banus, who evangelized France and Italy, and died, ven- 
erated and esteemed, at Bobbio in Italy. There was St. 
Killian, whose fame is cherished by the people of Bava- 
ria. There was St. Columba, or Columkille, one of the 
Apostles of Scotland, whose Isle of lona was, and even is 
to-day, the theme of song and of story. Its history moved 
the heart of Dr. Johnson. He has recorded his impressions 
in a sentence that will never die. In lona lies the dust 
of every monarch of Scotland, except the Bruce. Aye, 
even Duncan and Macbeth are here united in death. 
Shakespeare, you remember, alludes to lona in his play 
of ' ' Macbeth, ' ' yet how few understand these lines : 
"Ross — Where is Duncan's body? 
"Macduff — Carried to the Colmkill, 
The sacred storehouse of his predecessors, 
And guardian of their bones." 

Columkille found the Saxon a naked savage ; he taught 
him to be a Christian, and to be a man. Montalembert, 
in his "Monks of the West," devoted pages to this Irish 
exile. His school of lona was the hive whence went forth 
the learned and cultured Irishmen who changed Europe 
from barbarism to Christianity. 

In the eighth century the Irish monk Cataldus in 

48 



Italy followed in the steps of Columbanus. In the low 
countries, now Belgium and Holland, the name of St. 
Romauld, the learned Celt, is still a bright memory ; Clem- 
ent and Albinus, the learned Irish philosophers, were the 
leaders of thought. There was also Aidan of Lindisfarne, 
who assisted in civilizing the Saxon savage. Who has not 
heard of the learned Virgilius, or rather Farrelly, who dis- 
covered the rotundity of the earth? He lived and died 
the Bishop of Salzburg. What Celt has not taken pride in 
the name and fame of John Scotus Erigena at the Court 
of France? No one who claims to have any know- 
ledge of history doubts that Irishmen of culture wrote 
the "countless illuminated books of Erin," and that from 
the "Island of Saints and Scholars" they came in num- 
bers to the assistance of the barbarians of Europe. 

These exiles gave to England its common law. This 
may seem startling to many. But it is well to know facts, 
even if we discover them late in life. The common law of 
England in the opinion of the best authorities, is founded 
upon the Brehon law of the ancient Irish, which was 
adopted in the third century, in the reign of Cormac. 

Hence the United States is indebted to them for the 
foundation of its constitution and its laws. It may disturb 
the spirits of Daniel Webster and George William Curtis 
to hear this, or the learned Eliot of Harvard College to 
learn it, but such is the fact. 

The ignorant and dull Saxons received the only educa- 
tion they ever had from the Irish monks. Alfred, their 
King, was educated in Ireland, at Ireland's expense. Al- 
fred himself commemorates that fact in a Gaelic poem, 
now extant. Hence all knowledge of law, or of anything 
else, which the Saxon ever had came from Ireland. These 

49 



exiles gave the world its first idea of copyright. This was 
due to Columkille. He made a copy of the Book of Psalms 
without permission of the owner. The latter claimed 
it without avail. He then appealed to the King of Tara. 
The King decided that he who owned the original was 
entitled to the copy. This decree commences with the 
words, "Every cow has a right to its calf." Columkille 
was not satisfied. He appealed to his clan of the 'Neils ; 
war ensued, and many were slain. Columkille, as a pen- 
ance, determined to exile himself from Ireland. 

Love for Ireland is a remarkable trait in Irish char- 
acter. Yet it is not the material Ireland only that the 
Kelt loves ; it is the associations clustering around it, 
recalling home, and parents, and kindred, which are en- 
graved in his memory. It is the presence of an ideal 
world which speaks to him from every dell, from every 
hill, from every stream and from every spot of his Ireland. 

The history of Columkille is evidence of this deep 
affection. He loved Ireland so much that every day he 
looked across the waters to his dear home. 

When a tired and weary bird took shelter in the little 
Isle of Iona Columkille said to his monks : ' ' Take up that 
bird, dear brothers ; feed and care for her gently ; restore 
her strength again ; for that bird comes from Ireland. Oh, 
my broken heart ! that bird will fly back again, but I can 
never go back." 

His feelings as an exile are well described by him in 
these words: "Death in faultless Ireland is better than 
life without end in Albion." 

You have often heard of the exile who, at a banquet 
given in a foreign land, was asked to toast "The land we 
live in." "Certainly," said he, "with all my heart. Here's 



50 



to dear old Ireland!" It has been well said that no coun- 
try whien can inspire such sentiments is wholly lost, and 
no cause for which men willingly give up their lives is 
dead. If this be true, then may Ireland be proud of her 
exiled children. 

The desire to spread the light of the Gospel often 
caused the Kelt to leave for a time his native land. But 
he ever remained faithful to her. He always cherished 
the hope of seeing that dear isle once more. 

We now come to another exile, the compulsory exile 
of the children of Ireland from the land they loved so well 
We are forced to consider the black ingratitude of the 
Saxon to the people that reclaimed him from barbarism. 

From the time of the Norman invasion, in the twelfth 
century, the idea with the English was the annihilation 
of the Irish race. Beautiful Ireland was a paradise, which 
they believed was only intended for them and their de- 
scendants. As early as the reign of Henry VIII the Irish 
began to leave their native land. The story of Ireland 
since that period is an unhappy one for the Irish race, 
and a discredit to England. The methods of the English 
were criminal. The leaders of the Irish people were 
frequently removed by poison or by assassination. Quar- 
rels were fomented between families, so that the English 
could interfere. Rebellions were promoted by English 
informers in order that the clansmen would be found 
guilty of treason. They would thereby be deprived of 
their lands, so that English colonists could settle on 
them. Land hunger was the secret of English hate. 

Confiscation followed confiscation. Treaties were 
regarded as waste paper. Such men as Sir Walter Raleigh 
and the poet Spenser were as cruel and brutal as the Lon- 

51 



don riffraff. Finally, it was thought that Cromwell gave 
a death blow to the Kelt by massacres, and by the ex- 
patriation of thousands to the West Indies and to 
America, and by the forcible deportation of the remnant 
of the race to Connacht. Yet the Kelt survived, and still 
survives. To crown all, the Treaty of Limerick, which 
guaranteed civil and religious liberty, was broken. After 
the departure of Sarsfield's army, the Penal Laws of Ire- 
land were made more cruel and infamous. Then it would 
appear that the Irish people faced absolute annihilation. 
As Edmund Burke remarked, "As the idea of the English 
was to render humanity fit to be insulted, it was fit that 
it should be degraded. They divided the nation into two 
distinct parties, without common interest, sympathy or 
connection. One of these parties was to possess all the 
franchises, all the property, all the education ; the other 
was composed of drawers of water and cutters of turf for 
them." Then commenced the emigration of the Kelt in 
great numbers to all parts of the world. 

Ireland, deprived of the aid of her best children, 
seemed in the last stages of decay. While these conditions 
existed the sword of the Irishman was earning fame for 
the race in all parts of the world. The records of this en- 
forced emigration of the Kelts shows that the men of 
Ulster, such as the 'Neils, the O'Donnells and the 
O'Reillys, the O'Garas, Lacys, Lawlesses, Wogans, Blakes, 
went to Spain. There were five Irish regiments in the 
Spanish army. To-day there are many Spanish grandees of 
Irish descent. One of them refused to learn English be- 
cause he detested the practices of England. The men of 
Leinster, such as the Nugents, Kavanaghs and Taafes, en- 
listed in the service of Austria ; the men of Munster and 

52 



Connaeht in the armies of France ; hence the 'Briens, the 
Sullivans, the Murphys, the Lallys, were numerous in the 
Irish Brigade. In the Russian army there were several 
Irish soldiers, such as Clarke and DeLacy. In the Amer- 
ican Revolution the first General to fall in the sacred 
rights of American independence was the Kelt, Mont- 
gomery. 

Kelts filled the armies of Washington and Rochambeau. 

Then, too, we have among the exiles, the greatest 
orator of any age, the renowned Edmund Burke, the 
friend of America, who in statesmanship is easily the 
superior of any man, ancient or modern. This was the 
opinion of Macaulay and of our own Everett and Choate. 
Yet the English claim him, as they claim eve^thing. As 
"Wendell Phillips said, "They have one yardstick for 
themselves and another for the rest of mankind." But 
how they can claim one whose brogue was unmistakably 
Irish is a matter of wonder to me. 

Then there was the great writer and dramatist, Rich- 
ard Brinsley Sheridan. Of him Byron wrote: "Nature 
formed but one such man, and broke the die, in moulding 
Sheridan. ' ' 

There was Thomas Moore, the Irish poet, driven by 
necessity to live in England. 

Time prevents me from naming the number of brilliant 
men that have made the name of Ireland illustrious in all 
foreign lands. 

There were many others who were forced to leave their 
native land to earn their daily bread elsewhere. There 
was the architect, Barry, who designed the Parliament 
Buildings, in London. There was Maclise, the artist; 



53 



there were physicians and soldiers and poets without 
number. 

There was the brawn and sinew of Ireland condemned 
purposely by Saxon misrule to toil and labor at the mean- 
est tasks. There were, too, the Irish soldiers, who were 
compelled by poverty, and against their will, to serve the 
vile purposes of England. 

But will any one tell me that these facts affect English 
pride and English self-conceit? "No," as the Lord Lovell 
said: "England has no measure of right or wrong; if a 
thing harms England, it is wrong, and if it helps England, 
it is right. It is her only yardstick. ' ' 

It is not claiming too much to say that the anti-English 
spirit of the soldiers of the American Revolution was fed 
by the hatred of the Irish exiles who filled the American 
armies. Without this spirit and the assistance of the 
10,000 French troops, which included the Dillon and Walsh 
regiments, the Americans could not have succeeded. Why, 
sir, Irish names are found in every regiment in the Amer- 
ican army. The roll of the men of Bunker Hill is evidence 
of that fact. The majority of Washington's generals were 
of Keltic stock. Irish blood was prominent in American 
families. Why, even the celebrated John Hancock had an 
'Flaherty for his mother. Hear this, narrow-minded 
Anglo-Saxon. Learn the truth, even if it is not pleasant 
to your preconceived ideas. Know that the Kelt has 
rights, and the time is at hand when he will proclaim them 
and insist that they shall be recognized. 

Ireland never asked for England's love, not even for her 
good-will. But what she wanted was the appearance of 
justice which was due her as a weak opponent. If for no 



54 



other reason, England owed this to Ireland in order to 
preserve English dignity. 

But alas ! England never had any appearance of dig- 
nity in her treatment of the Irish people. To show the 
self-conceit and hypocrisy of England, I will refer to the 
plea of the eulogist of saintly Henry VIII and the virgin 
Queen Elizabeth. Mr. Froude volunteered to tell us why 
the Irish were exiled from their native land. 

1st. He told us that England gave them what they 
deserved. 

2d. They were governed badly because they could not 
be governed rightly. 

3d. They were robbed and plundered by the English, 
because they made such bad use of their own. 

4th. They were persecuted, because it was the fashion 
of the day. 

These arguments are the only ones that one of the most 
celebrated Englishmen could bring to tell the world why 
there were Irish exiles, and this in face of the fact that 
the Irish have been successful in all countries but their 
own. He stated his case and he lost it. Why? Because 
to-day the Exile of Erin is the victor. England, tried 
before the bar of public opinion, is condemned by the 
judgment of the entire world, civilized and uncivilized. 

The conceit of England knows no bounds. Even if 
she were summoned before the bar of Eternal Justice, 
and the great Judge demanded her name, her deeds, and 
her titles, I really believe that England would reply: "I 
refuse to answer, on the advice of counsel." 

England points proudly to her Constitution. But she 
took good care that it should be a protection for her 
own people. This fact reminds me of a little story. 

55 



During the debates before the Civil War in this coun- 
try a controversy arose over the relative merits of the 
two parties which then appealed to the people for sup- 
port. A Kansas farmer named Sam Smith was asked 
how he was going to vote. "I am going to vote," 
said he, "for the Constitooshun, the Union and the 
Enforcement of the Law." "Tell me," said one, 
"what is the Constitooshun?" "The Constitooshun," said 
he, "I have never seen. I do not know how it looks, par- 
ticularly, but I know that, it is something kept in a strong 
box in Washington, which no one ever sees." 

This was indeed the case of the English Constitution 
so far as Ireland was concerned. It was kept somewhere 
secreted so that no Irishmen could get a chance to look 
at it or to claim the protection of its many provisions. 
Ireland received, instead, plenty of Coercion laws. Hence 
I claim that the faults of the Irish, if they have any, are 
not due to them, but to English tyranny. I say they have 
the right to a review of the past and to show how England 
first robbed them of all that was dear to freemen and then 
attempted to degrade them. I claim that the criticism of 
the Irish people lately by Martin Keogh — note the name 
Keogh — Justice of the Supreme Court of New York, for 
the little faults that they may have is beneath contempt. 
I say to him, and to others like him, that such criticism, 
in view of the heroic struggle of the Irish people for 
freedom, is like criticism of the Greeks at Marathon or 
at Thermopylae, or of the Poles and the Boers to-day, or 
of Nathan Hale in our Revolutionary War. There is a 
limit to such small, miserable methods. 

There is a dead line of fair dealing with heroic peo- 



56 



pies, beyond which I am sure American love of fair play 
will forbid any decent man to go. 

If I were asked to name the good points of the Irish 
exile, I should say : First — Religious fervor. Beyond and 
above all, this quality is supreme. It was so in pagan 
times, before St. Patrick, and it was so with the early 
monks who evangelized Europe and civilized the igno- 
rant Saxons. It is so to-day wherever the Irishman 
dwells. Would that I had time to dwell upon this head. 

The second quality that strikes us is the purity of the 
women of Ireland, even under the most trying circum- 
stances, due to their high religious ideals and family 
pride. The position of women among the Irish, even 
from the earliest times, has been an exalted one. They 
were treated with distinguished courtesy and honor. 
Moore, in his "Melodies," proudly and frequently refers 
to this fact. 

Before the light of Christianity dawned on Ireland 
women, by the provisions of the Brehon law, were the 
equals of men. The respect of the pagan Irish for the 
mother and daughter and wife and sister was only in- 
tensified by Christianity. 

There is another quality about the exile which attracts 
world-wide attention. It is his marvelous wit. It is a 
gleam of sunshine in the darkness of his sad history. 
Fate may have been his enemy in the accumulation of 
riches, but it left him something better — a keen intel- 
ligence. Here is an example : 

You remember that a certain traveler questioned a 
Kelt about the depth of a certain lake in California. The 
guide claimed that it had no bottom. "How do you know 
that?" said the traveler. He replied: "Because a neigh- 

57 



bor of mine tried it." "How is that?" said the other. 
"Why," said the guide, "he removed his clothes, and 
jumped in, and disappeared. His body was never found." 
"You never found his body?" "No, sir," said the Kelt; 
"but the next day we received a cable from Manila to 
send on his clothes." 

Here is another : Two ladies asked an Irishman in New 
York which was the older of the two. "Why, then," he 
replied, "each of you looks younger than the other." 

Here is an other: An aged lady, getting out of a cab 
in the city of San Francisco, said to the Irish cab driver: 

"Help me, I am getting old " "Begorra, madam, 

said he, "whatever age you are you don't look it." He 
received a good fee. 

A rich woman in this city wanted a butler. An Irish- 
man desired the place. "Why did you leave your last 
place?" said she. "Because," he said, "my mistress was 
old and cranky." The lady said: "I may be old and 
cranky, too." "You may be cranky," said Erin's son, 
"but old — never." He got the place, with high wages. 

Here is another: A judge in Canada invited a poor 
Irish laborer into his private car, saying: "It is a long 
time before you could ride in a railway carriage with a 
judge in Ireland." At once he replied: "It is a long 
time you would be in Ireland before you would be a 
judge." 

At Dunsmuir in this State, a much loved priest was 
attacked by a candidate. The clergyman took good care 
to do all he could to defeat him at the polls. He was 
beaten unmercifully. Meeting the defeated man the day 
after the priest stood, doffed his hat, and held it in front 
of him, bowing all the time. The crowd collected and de- 

58 



manded: "Father Carr, why do you do that to this cur?" 
"I always make it a rule to show respect to the dead," 
rejoined the priest. 

Here is something from Alameda county: It is told 
of General Houghton, who was at one time, I believe, a 
Congressman from this State. He was walking across 
his neighbor's field, and a bull ran after him. He jumped 
over the fence, and escaped — not without tearing his 
clothes. Meeting the owner, an Irish lady, he blurted 
out: "Madam, it is a shame to allow a bull with such 
bad manners to run at large." "Who are you?" said the 
lady. He replied, with great dignity: "I am General 
Houghton." "Why, in the name of God, did you not 
tell the bull so ? " was her reply. 

Take the case of the Kelt who was asked to take a 
drink out of a very small glass, and was told that it was 
forty years old. "Well," said he, "I think it is the small- 
est thing of its age I ever saw." 

Another anecdote is told of an Irishman who, meeting 
a friend, said: "I heard you were dead." "You see," 
said the other, ' ' I am not. " " Oh, no ! " said he ; "I would 
believe the other man sooner than I could believe you." 

Of the same kind is the story of the man who called 
upon the Irish editor of a Chicago paper with a complaint 
that he was put among the dead. ' ' Oh ! ' ' said the editor, 
"our paper never lies. It can't afford to do so. It would 
lose circulation. If you insist on being alive again, it will 
be necessary to give you a place in the column of births. ' ' 

Another is of the Kelt who shut his eyes and looked in 
the glass to see how he would look when he was dead. 

Our toastmaster has enlivened his court proceedings 
with some specimens of his Keltic wit. 

59 



Here is a gem: A witness on the stand was badgered 
by an attorney, who asked: ''Did he drive a wagon?" 
"No, sir," said the witness. "Do you mean to say, sir, 
that you understand the value of an oath, and yet say that 
he did not drive a wagon ? " "I still say that he did not dc 
so," replied the witness. "Then what did he drive?" said 
the attorney. "He drove a horse," replied the witness, 
amid the roars of laughter in the courtroom, in which 
the Judge joined. The lawyer demanded in angry tones 
that he should be protected in his rights. At this time a 
jackass commenced to bray outside, and filled the court- 
room with sound. Thereupon the lawyer yelled louder 
still. The Judge, wishing to restore order, said: "The 
court will only hear one attorney at a time. I cannot 
stand two at once." 

Another good thing is told of our toastmaster. A law- 
yer, wishing to give a lady client the benefit of the 
Judge's advice, suggested that she question him in refer- 
ence to the estate of which she was executrix. "Ask the 
Judge, ' ' said the lawyer. ' ' One moment, ' ' said his Honor, 
"do I understand that you desire me to decide questions 
of law as a judge or to give advice as an attorney?" 
"Well," said the attorney, "both, if your Honor can do 
so." "Well, Mr. Attorney," said the Judge, "permit me 
to say that it is as much as my life is worth to sit here 
and decide questions which you raise. But further I will 
not go. I will say, however, that the credulity of your 
clients has always been a source of amazement to me." 
Within a second the client and attorney disappeared to 
seek consolation elsewhere. 

The next quality is generosity. 

This changed the Normans, like the Fitzgeralds, the 

60 



Roches and the Dillons, from enemies into friends. The 
generous Irish conquered them, and they became more 
Irish than the Irish themselves. Among the greatest of 
Irish martyrs were men of Norman origin. Who ever 
heard of an Irish exile turning a deaf ear to a person 
in want? 

The generosity of the Irish in America and elsewhere to 
their relatives in Ireland is without a parallel in history. 

The world has paused in its pursuit of wealth to praise 
the unselfish and voluntary offerings of the Keltic wage- 
worker to his poor kindred in Ireland. The Keltic exiles 
have paid twice over for the value of all the land in Ire- 
land tilled and occupied by their countrymen. The 
fidelity of the Irish exiles to their own at home is one of 
the answers to the charge that man to-day is growing 
more and more selfish. The Irish race has given a frank 
denial to such a severe criticism of humanity. 

As for me, I love the spirit which guides the poor men 
and women of my race to give their mite to that land and 
that people which they cherish in their heart of hearts. 

The Irish wage-workers in foreign lands have not only 
purchased over and over again the soil of Ireland, they 
have done more ; they have kept alive the spirit of Irish 
nationality. Yet that generosity which elevates the Irish 
exile only causes the English to sneer at their patriot- 
ism. But the Kelt is coming in for his own. However, 
it is sad to say that the result of this exile has been a 
partial loss of the glorious Keltic language. Enforced 
emigration has prevented the free use of the Gaelic. 
Many forgot that they were the possessors of a literature 
equal to the Greek. 



61 



The English schools never taught that the ancient Irish 
were a highly civilized race with written characters of 
their own, at a time, too, when the English were densely 
ignorant. The exiles were never told by English books that 
Ireland was the land of "Saints and Scholars." Many 
lived and died without knowing that the written Irish 
manuscripts were very numerous. The English never ad- 
mitted that these books were destroyed by them whenever 
they could lay their hands on them. Thanks to the German 
scholars, and to the Gaelic League, light has been thrown 
upon this wonderful Irish literature of the past. It is the 
mission of Dr. Douglas Hyde to restore the Irish language 
to the Irish people, to give them a knowledge of the great- 
ness of their ancestors and of the glories of the Kelt in 
peace and war, and to make the Irishman believe more 
in himself and in his own destiny. To-day the Kelt in 
America says to all the world : ' ' Thank God ! I am of 
Irish stock, and I am proud of it. ' ' 

While it is true that the Irish people as a race have 
never been conquered, it is also true that many of them 
affected English customs. Dr. Hyde proposed that the 
Kelt must be taught that, while the English have good 
points in a business point of view, he has better qualities 
of his own. The Kelt, moreover, may admire the patriot- 
ism of the Greeks, and may see in the Parthenon at 
Athens the ideal of Grecian art, but let him remember 
that he, too, on the rock of Cashel, has monuments of 
Irish art which bring back in their glorious ruins heroic 
memories fully as splendid as ever clustered around the 
Acropolis of the violet-crowned city of Greece. 

He may dwell with delight on the progress of Gaelic 
Wales, but let him take to heart the statement in the 

62 



Welsh codes: "There are three things without which 
there is no country : commerce, language and co-tillage of 
land ; for without these a country cannot support itself in 
peace or social union." Let him remember, too, that 
fifty years ago Wales was like Ireland of to-day. Her 
language was almost dead. Let him realize with Thomas 
Davis that ' ' a people without a language of its own is only 
half a nation. A nation should guard its language more 
than its territories ; 'tis a surer barrier, and more import- 
ant frontier, than fortress or river. ' ' 

There are some who frown upon the Irish exile because 
he has come in the past to this land without means or edu- 
cation ; in other words, because he is poor. They do not 
inquire why he is poor and uneducated, but simply accept 
the fact as a badge of disgrace. For these critics riches 
are everything. For them education is the important 
factor. It suffices to say that one or two generations back, 
their fathers were as poor and uneducated as the Irishman 
that lands upon their shores. But he brings to this repu- 
lic what their ancestors did not. He has riches far higher 
than money or learning. He possesses morality, courtesy, 
wit and intellect of a high order, and a strong arm and a 
clear brain and a good constitution. If this country has 
progressed, it is partly due to him. 

Who were the leading pioneers who made a pathway 
from the Atlantic to the Pacific? Who helped to till the 
fields and to make the land hum with industry? The 
answer will be — the Irish exiles. 

The next, and perhaps greatest, quality of the Irish 
exile is his indomitable courage. What land and what 
people will not bear witness to this ! The whole earth is 
red with Irish blood, in defense of the weak. Does not 



63 



every battlefield in foreign lands give evidence of Keltic 
valor? Alas! that blood was often spilled in causes for 
which the exile cared little. But it was done with the 
hope that England would take warning. Every sword 
thrust made and every shot fired by the Irish exiles were 
a menace to England. I am proud to say that the Irish 
exile never willingly drew his sword to enslave a people. 
You remember the tribute of a distinguished American: 
"I have seen a black swan, I have heard of a white crow, 
but neither I nor any one in the world ever heard of an 
Irishman who willingly fought to enslave his fellow-man." 

Last year in June it was my privilege to represent the 
Irish people of California at Fontenoy. As I walked over 
that battlefield I though that I would sooner have been a 
soldier of the Irish Brigade, and have changed defeat into 
victory, than any cruel landlord in Ireland or elsewhere, 
with the curses of widows and orphans on my head. I 
admired then, as I admire now, the heroism of the Irish 
exile who on that day received the order in Gaelic: 
"Charge with fixed bayonets; do not fire until you touch 
the Englishman's belly!" and I thought then and I think 
now that I would rather have been that poor Irish soldier 
fighting for the ideal of civil and religious liberty of his 
country in a foreign land than any purse-proud, cold- 
hearted millionaire. I had rather do a noble deed for 
my own land, and for my own people, and for their 
widows and children, than be the selfish possessor of all 
the riches of the world. 

Then, too, the idea came to me: all men can make 
money, but it is given to few to be heroes of history like 
the Irish soldiers at Fontenoy. 

"While in Italy in 1905 I visited Cremona, and followed 

64 



the steps of the brave Irish soldiers through its gates, its 
ramparts and its streets. Here thirty-five men of our 
race held back an army. Here two Irish regiments, clad 
only in their shirts, held their ground against all odds, 
and, though poor, refused to be bribed. You remember 
that although their commander, the French Marshal Vil- 
leroi, was a prisoner, these exiles finally rallied the French 
and then drove out of Cremona Prince Eugene of Savoy, 
one of the greatest soldiers of modern times. 

The French King Louis thought highly of his Irish sol- 
diers. When D'Argensen,the Minister of War, said to him: 
"Sire, the Irish gave me more trouble than the rest of the 
army," the King replied: "That is what my enemies 
say." What Kelt does not feel a thrill of joy to know 
that it was the proud boast of the Irish soldier that he 
alone had emblazoned on his banners, "Always and every- 
where faithful ' ' ! 

Can America ever forget Irish valor? Never, until 
the Revolutionary and Civil wars, in which Irish blood 
flowed freely, are forgotten. I say now, without fear of 
contradiction, that as the Kelts stood in the past in defense 
of American liberty, so will they stand in the future, 
ever faithful to the cause of the glorious stars and stripes. 
Let no man say that an Irish exile is any less an American 
because he is proud of the land of his fathers. Let no 
man impugn the motives of the son, because he cherishes 
the mother of his heart. While I concede to others the 
full right to love the land of their ancestors, while I am 
an American of Americans, a Californian of Californians, 
I proudly claim the right to love Ireland, the land of brave 
men and pure women ; the land of heroism, of song, and of 
undying devotion to liberty ; the land made dearer to our 
hearts by the labors of Douglas Hyde. (Great applause.) 

65 



I have often remarked with surprise that while the so- 
called Anglo-Saxon hears with pleasure an American say 
that he is the descendant of the English or the Scotch, 
he always sneers when any one claims that he is proud of 
his Irish blood. Of course, I realize that it is the ignor- 
ance of the so-called Anglo-Saxon, who forgets that the 
Irishman took him when a barbarian and gave him some 
knowledge of the arts of civilization. It was a bad job, 
I admit, but the Kelt did it. 

It is a matter of great pride for me, the son of an Irish 
exile, to claim for the Gael a great share in the making 
of the great State of California. It is impossible to over- 
look the Kelt here, as the Puritan has tried to do in other 
States. It gives me great delight to say that from the 
earliest date of American occupation and from the first 
moment that the stars and stripes fluttered to the 
breeze at Monterey, the Kelt was here to take his place 
among the forces that made this lovely land a part of 
the republic. No man can deny this. If he does, he will 
receive the chastisement which will be given to the sinner 
on the last day, " Go ye into everlasting fire. ' ' 

It was my privilege some months ago to pay a visit to 
the old Parliament House of Ireland. I can never forget 
the first time I entered that great building. As a 
son of an Irishman, I naturally felt emotion when I 
recalled the fact that these halls had heard the splendid 
oratory of Grattan, Flood, Curran, Plunket and Bushe. 
The jingle of gold had supplanted the sound of eloquence. 
The money changer had desecrated the temple of Ireland's 
hopes and aspirations. While thus musing on the past I 
suddenly remembered that I was not in a temple but in a 
counting house, and my dream came to an end. The offi- 

66 



eial who waited upon me asked if I was impressed with 
the beauty of the structure. I replied: "To me it is not 
beautiful, and will not be until an Irish Parliament 
again occupies this building." "Why," he said, "that 
could be possible in one year, if the Irish could only 
agree." "Well," I said, "I think this will be brought 
about by Dr. Douglas Hyde and the Gaelic League." 
"Yes," he answered, "the only movement which has led 
captive the imagination of all Irishmen without regard to 
religion is this idea of the study of the Gaelic tongue. 
This favors neither Catholic nor Protestant, landlord or 
tenant. If it goes on, we will see an Irish Parliament in 
session here before very long. " 

What is the lesson to be drawn from the history of 
the Irish exile? It is this. No nation can afford to alien- 
ate any part of its own citizens or try to govern other 
peoples by forgetting its high moral duties. Right and 
duty are correlative. My rights end where the rights of 
my neighbor begin. So it is with nations. 

In the past the history of Ireland has been written by 
Englishmen to conceal their treacherous methods and 
criminal conduct towards the Irish people. It has been a 
conspiracy against the truth. It has been an age of in- 
gratitude towards Ireland — the civilizer of England. But 
I see in the dim vista of years to come a change of great 
magnitude. Then the right will have its day. Then the 
name of Ireland will be respected and revered. Then at 
last qualities that go to make generous, courageous, hos- 
pitable and intellectual men and women will be summed 
up in the virtues of the exiles of Erin. 



67 



JOHN McNAUGHT. 
"The Press." 
This was no silly conversation, or lying invention, nor "a. 
woman told me that a woman told her. ' ' 

Judge Coffey — To the Press credit is due for assist- 
ance rendered in spreading the tidings of the advent of 
our guest and publishing accounts of the nature of this 
movement. 

A worthy representative of journalism, a ripe scholar 
and a pleasing speaker, as you shall presently discover, 
will now address you, John McNaught. 

Mr. Toastmaster and Gentlemen — The hour is late ; the 
speakers who have preceded me have given ample expres- 
sion to our common sympathies with the aspirations of 
the Gaelic League and to that cordiality of feeling with 
which we welcome its distinguished leader, our guest of 
this evening. Those who are to follow me will add what- 
soever may be needed to emphasize what has been said 
and by eloquent reiteration confirm our guest in his sense 
of our appreciation of his work, and make his assurance 
doubly sure. 

Speaking for the Press, I have but two things to say. 
First: I wish to assure Dr. Hyde that the workers of the 
Press fully recognize not only the truth but the value of 
his statement that the success of the Gaelic League is de- 
pendent as much upon the fidelity of humble followers in 
the ranks as upon the genius of its leaders. It was a gen- 
erous and graceful thing for him at this time to direct 
our thoughts to the absent and unknown workers for the 
cause, and we recognize the fitness as well as the modesty 
of the sentiment coming from his lips. 

In the very nature of things the Press cannot record 

68 



the name of every member of the League, neither can it 
publish daily an account of the service rendered by those 
who do their work in the quiet by-ways of the world, un- 
noted and almost unknown; but, nevertheless, it recog- 
nizes that great movements take place only when great 
masses are moving, and that such success as has been 
achieved in the Gaelic Eevival could have come only 
through the energies of a large number of ardent and de- 
voted men and women, supporting with zeal and with 
loyalty the brilliant galaxy of poets, dramatists, profes- 
sors and orators who are leading the van. 

Where all are equally faithful and diligent, all deserve 
equal honor; and, while we cannot give that equality of 
honor by name in all cases, yet we can assure Dr. Hyde 
that when he returns to Ireland he can bear back with 
him the message that the honor, the sympathy and the 
welcome we have given to him go forth with an equal 
cordiality to every faithful worker in the cause. 

The second thing I have to say is this : Of the two im- 
pulses which are distinctly marked in the movement for 
the revival of Gaelic, that which tends to re-establish the 
ancient language among the people of Ireland will natu- 
rally appeal most strongly to the Irish themselves, but 
that which tends to bring back to popular knowledge the 
old poesy of the Gaels affects a far wider circle and has a 
more general influence. Many a man may learn to speak 
Gaelic without caring at all about the legends and the 
poesy of a thousand years ago ; and so, on the other hand, 
many will delight in the revival of the ancient literature 
who will never undertake to learn the ancient language. 
It is quite probable there will be a thousand who will 
thank Dr. Hyde for his translations into English of so 

69 



many of the old ballads for every one who will take his 
advice and learn to read them in the original. 

The literature of Europe owes a deep debt to Keltic 
genius, since everything of chivalry that is known to 
modern sentimeut has been derived from it. It was from 
the old bards of the Keltic races, and from the kings and 
warriors who marched to the sound of their harps, singing 
their songs of valor and love, that men learned the finest 
lessons of knighthood, and were taught to reverence 
womanhood in the person of queen or peasant girl with 
an equal loyalty and an equal honor. 

There are other lessons, less great, perhaps, but not 
less fine and beautiful, to be learned at this late day by 
bringing back into our minds and our hearts the old in- 
spirations of the Gael. The uncorrupted spirit of the 
primitive races that prompted men to fight fairly, to love 
worthily and to serve loyally, lives still in the sentiment 
of the old songs, and, if heeded well, will have a power to 
revive within us the same high instincts, for these are as 
native to the hearts of men to-day as they were in the 
hearts of the heroes of old. It was most joyous therefore 
to find coming out of the mists of Ireland this poesy with 
all the freshness of dewy dawns, the glow of strong sea 
breezes and the elemental sweetness and beauty of the 
wild rose and the shamrock bloom. 

No man whose mind is at all responsive to the influ- 
ences of poesy can read the songs of the ancient Gaels 
without sympathizing in the enthusiasm with which the 
Gaels of to-day rejoice in it, and feeling with them the 
glow of its magical inspiration. If one may understand 
the "Dark Rosaleen" of Clarence Mangan's poem to be a 
symbol of the Muse of Ireland, there will be a larger 

70 



host than that of the Gaelic League to share in the senti- 
ment of the poem as well as to delight in the beauty of the 
music and the splendor of the words. We can all of us 
say as fervently as the poet himself : 

Woe and pain, pain and woe, 

Are my lot, night and noon, 
To see your bright face clouded so, 

Like to the mournful moon. 
But yet will I rear your throne 

Again in golden sheen; 
'Tis you shall reign, shall reign alone, 

My dark Kosaleen! 

My own Eosaleen! 
'Tis you shall have the golden throne, 
'Tis you shall reign, and reign alone, 

My dark Eosaleen! 

Over dews, over sands, 

Will I fly for your weal; 
Your holy delicate white hands 

Shall girdle me with steel. 
At home in your emerald bowers, 

From morning's dawn till e'en, 
You'll pray for me, my flower of flowers, 

My dark Eosaleen! 

My own Eosaleen! 
You'll think of me through daylight's hours, 
My virgin flower, my flower of flowers, 

My dark Eosaleen! 

I could scale the blue air, 

I could plough the high hills; 
Oh! I could kneel all night in prayer, 

To heal your many ills! 
And one beamy smile from you 

Would float like light between 
My toils and me, my own, my true, 

71 



My dark Eosaleeu! 

My own Eosaleen! 
Would give me life and soul anew, 
A second life, a soul anew, 

My dark Eosaleen! 

Oh, the Erne shall run red 

With redundance of blood; 
The earth shall rock beneath our tread, 

And flames wrap hill and wood, 
And gun-peal and slogan-cry 

Wake many a glen serene, 
Ere you shall fade, ere you shall die, 

My dark Eosaleen! 

My own Rosaleen! 
The judgment hour must first be nigh, 
Ere you can fade, ere you can die, 

My dark Eosaleen! 

BENJAMIN I. WHEELER. 

"A People's Heritage." 
This is what the labor of gentle Patrick saith; 

This is what the clear and learned tones of poets and of saints 
say; 
This is what the courtesy of smooth-skinned fair women saith — 
May our Irish language live in safety. 

Judge Coffey — A people's heritage in America is the 
public school system. Whatever criticism may be ex- 
pended upon it, the common school is the base of our 
liberty, and the university is the apex. Universal educa- 
tion is our insistence, and it must precede everything else, 
and in its comprehensive grasp the language of the Gael 
must be comprised, and no one is better adapted to pre- 
serve that tongue in safety than the President of the Uni- 
versity of California, Benjamin Ide Wheeler. 

Mr. Toastmaster and Gentlemen — A man who has made 

72 




[DR. BENJAMIN IDE WHEELER 



such rapid advances in what he calls civilization as to be 
ashamed of his old mother's quaint dress, her homely man- 
ners and her old-fashioned grammar, is not a good man to 
tie to as a friend. The shame which has tempted him to 
disown the sources of his life and the line by which he 
came has poisoned the loyalties of his soul. Not every 
family has traditions of distinction, but the man who has 
failed to gather from reverence to parents or from 
memories of his forefathers some inspiration of family 
pride or tribal loyalty, even though it be only from hum- 
ble deeds of sacrifice and love, has lost the warrant of 
life's firmest anchorage and tenderest benediction. Well 
may a man with widening experience and broader grasp 
of the meaning of things write into larger forms the reli- 
gious faith of his mother and father, but he who scorns 
and forsakes it has put to sea without a rudder ; he has 
taken the crystal vessel of his fate into his own bare 
hands and gone out with it into the mountains and the 
dark. Among the Chinamen give me an old original who 
has kept his queue and felt shoes, rather than the nonde- 
script half-John half-Jonathan who may have forgotten 
his ancestors, but not fan-tan, and learned the ways of 
trusts, but not trust in the Lord — -graft, but not grace. 

The life of an individual or of a people rises to its full 
moral dignity only in the consciousness of deep historic 
roots and in the recognition of a heritage that constitutes 
a trust. We are an American nation by our joint inheri- 
tance of great deeds, great names, great sacrifices ; by our 
common faith in the ideals of its founders, by our common 
response to the messages of its poets and its prophets, by 
common share in the fame of its heroes, by common re- 
sponsibility for transmission of our heritage unimpaired 

73 



to our children. Ideals, traditions, sentiments, make a 
people and a nation more than do boundaries of land, 
poets more than law-givers, the sympathy of speech more 
than the edicts of councils. 

Little Greece, submerged beneath the flood of Islam, 
re-emerged by the vital force of sentiment and speech 
grounded in ancient and noble tradition; and land-lack 
Israel has through the centuries maintained itself a people 
and a nation without boundaries, fleets or kings, by hold- 
ing to its ancient books and hearkening to the councils of 
Jehovah. Kingdoms and dynasties rise and vanish away, 
but a people 's heritage lodged in the higher good may yet 
abide, beyond the reach of this corrupting moth and rust 
of politics and power. So it is with the Irish heritage, 
and how great and manifold a one it is ! An ancient 
literature and a modern teeming in scholarship and grace, 
both finely responsive to the peculiar mood and pathos of 
the Irish people ; records of a golden age when the lamp of 
learning shone out from the house of Ireland upon the 
darkness of Europe ; stories of matchless bravery on many 
fields; echoes of eloquence unsurpassed; the voices of 
bards singing sweetly ; a gleam of humor rising trium- 
phant above the cross-purposes of the Universe ; a warmth 
of human attachment defying the shuffles of fortune ; final- 
ly the sign and symbol of it all — one and the same historic 
whole, whether it buries its roots deep into the unwritten 
past to claim its kinship with the Latin, Greek or Sanskrit, 
or falls from the lips of the Irish mother crooning over her 
babe in the cottage; these all, and with them many a cry 
of anguish from the hillsides — these are your nation's 
sacred treasures richer than the hoards of Persepolis; 
these, sons of Erin, are your people's heritage, and no 

74 




VERY REV. JOHN P. FRIEDEN, S. J 



bailiff's warrant, nor lordly fleet, nor lord lieutenant, can 
take them from you. 

REV. JOHN P. FRXEDEN, S. J. 
"Gaelic in the Schools of Ireland." 

From the golden plover of the mountains I heard tidings that 
the Gael should be set up on high; the people of the English lan- 
guage, under a fog and under shame forever, but happiness and 
satisfaction upon our friends. 

Judge Coffey — The oldest educational establishment on 
this Coast, with one exception, is St. Ignatius' College. 
It has just celebrated its golden jubilee, and in its roll of 
pupils are enumerated many of the leading citizens of 
California. At the head of this great institution we have 
one of the most learned educators on this sphere, a pro- 
found scholar and philosopher, whose sympathies are 
without bounds, whose charity is that described by the 
apostle, a sincere friend of the Gaelic cause, the Very Rev. 
J. P. Frieden, S. J. 

Mr. Toastmaster, Your Grace, Dr. Hyde and Gentlemen 
— There would seem to be a deeper philosophy in the 
Gaelic linguistic movement than appears at first sight to 
the casual observer. 

A French thinker declares the mind to be "the archi- 
tect of its own dwelling. ' ' Very true. But mind is some- 
thing more. Mind is an ever-active principle which illu- 
mines with a light that radiates from man's entire being. 
In every problem of human advancement mind is the 
potent factor par excellence; true human progress must 
work itself out through the gradual evolution of ideas. 
Man's betterment, therefore, in the natural order, must 
originate, not in camps nor legislative halls nor political 

75 



assemblies, but rather in that workshop of ideas — the 
school. 

The Irish just now are investing their schoolmaster 
with the prerogatives of a lay messiahship. In every 
county of Ireland's four provinces the universal slogan is, 
"Educate." But why that education, whose ultimate 
scope in this case is avowedly Ireland's uplifting, why 
that education — I say — has to be received, as much as may 
be, in the people's idiom, needs to be closely studied. 

The staying-power of a nationality, its tenacious hold 
upon an expiring life, may perhaps be accounted for by 
its Divine appointment. God made peoples distinct and 
diverse. In Holy "Writ (Deuteronomy, xxxii) we learn 
how "the Most High divided the nation"; not, however, 
by geographical boundaries merely — as by the waters of 
a sea or a mountain range — but by intellectual leanings, 
by moral aptitudes and aesthetic instincts — in a word, by 
racial differences utterly irreconcilable. These differences 
are no where deeper than in language ; and so the lan- 
guage of a country affords a vast insight into the intimate 
workings of its national existence. Indeed, races differ 
as do the tongues they speak. "Wherever civilization has 
found peoples, it has found them speaking in dialects char- 
acteristically different ; every considerable human group 
has even now its peculiar speech — it has a vehicle for 
thought distinctively and exclusively its own. "We can- 
not, therefore, without incongruity, disassociate the idea 
of a people from that of its vernacular — they are two 
things rebellious to any kind of cleavage. 

Now, what conclusion do we draw from these reflec- 
tions? We draw this conclusion, that, according to the 
Creator's plan, the language of a country is inseparable 

76 



from the very essence of its fully developed nationhood. 
As the national idiom is part and parcel of the equipment 
destined to fit a people for its Providential mission, its 
intellectual development in a tongue alien to its own must, 
in the very nature of things, be halting and stunted in its 
results. To give up or to lose one's mother tongue on 
one's native soil is to give up or to lose the Heaven- 
bestowed gift of membership in the family of mankind's 
peoples. 

In very truth, the movements in the past that had 
for their object Ireland's uplifting have all but collapsed 
— those movements have invariably ignored or overlooked 
the tongue of the Gael. Had all that energy been utilized 
in the school — had it been devoted to the rational Gaelic 
training of Irish boys and girls, the passenger ship from 
Queenstown would not be so heavily laden with that 
wealth whose loss depletes and drains Ireland's sole re- 
maining treasure — men. 

Some maintain that the Irish exodus was a matter of 
economics. There is truth in this — but not the whole 
truth. One great reason, which has endured till recent 
years, lies deeper. The Irishman has been robbed of his 
language, and, logically, he came almost to feel that he 
had no country of his own; so he left the land which a 
foreign tongue had made strange to him. 

Some years ago a piccolo player, seemingly picked up 
on the street somewhere, took his stand among the accom- 
plished musicians of an Eastern orchestra. From the 
very outset it was almost ludicrous to see how among his 
brilliant companions the newcomer riveted the eyes of the 
vast audience on himself, simply by whistling through his 
insignificant pipe some bars of an aria. In his hands the 

77 



helpless tube sang in tones almost human ! Now, suppose 
you seat this man at a splendid organ, with its multiplied 
banks of keys, its pedal board, swells and formidable 
array of stops on either side. Out of that superb instru- 
ment not a single musical idea can the piccolo player 
elicit. Why ? Because it is not his ! If you would have 
the outpourings of his soul — of a soul vibrant with emo- 
tional harmony and passionate feeling — you must give him 
a fitting medium through which to voice his song. Not 
your majestic organ, with its mechanism of infinite detail 
and its thousands of pipes — thousands for the piccolo 
player are thousands too many; he needs only one, his 
own ! So it is with peoples. So it is with the Irish. The 
cry of their national aspirations and patriotic hopes, their 
dirge of sorrow and their hymns of exultation, may be 
voiced in no other tongue than that in which Heaven de- 
creed they should rejoice or mourn; their language is a 
God-given, sacred thing — a thing almost sacramental. 

Ireland owes much to the Gaelic League ; Ireland owes 
much to the man who persistently rang out the alarm-cry, 
following it always with the clarion-call to organization 
and activity. What we want in our time is men who are 
the personification of an uplifting idea. Under the guid- 
ance of Dr. Douglas Hyde, Ireland has at length mar- 
shaled her forces under the chieftainship of that incom- 
parable strategist, the schoolmaster; and already their 
serried phalanx moves hopefully onward towards a vic- 
tory to be achieved in a new kind of contest, with weapons 
invincible when courageously wielded on the sacred bat- 
tleground of the school. 



78 



MICHAEL O'MAHONY. 

In the high language that was used by bard and sage, I greet 
you with 9,000 welcomes, both great and small, both young and 
old, both man and woman, and child. 

Judge Coffey — We shall now hear from a gentleman a 
discourse to which, I trust, you will give close attention. 

It will exhibit to you the force and elegance of the 
Irish language, which, though you may not all understand 
the terms, you will readily appreciate the earnestness and 
sincerity of the speaker, Michael 'Mahony. 



A TlAfrOApAin : 1r te ponn opm t>' eipgtm 
ivim t>0 coIa -00 cdimtiotiA-d. A iDcopAX) 
mo io.irice-.6CA miAn opm ma bm-oeACAp 
x>o £At>Aipc leo po cuS cmpSA-o •OAtn curri 
nApeipepo, Agup -oo ceAp'OAm p -Mbce t>0 
tup a ii'5ao-6'Lai5 poim 1ot>e Oip-oe-Apc An 
cpAcnonA, CeACT)Aipe na n-eipeAn» 6um 
ActomneA'6 CAp teAp,.An CpAOtbin Aoibm. 

1p mop An onoip Tio Aon -ounie ceAT> 
VaBapca -o' f-A§Ait beip An ntnnne tiApAt 
po a LicAtp ia Cui'oeAC'OAn ceimeAmtA po. 

A "OubglAp T>e Vli<oe! A CeAiinuppATO 
tiA n-eipeAnnAC, Agup CuIcaca hi Jao*- 
Ailje:— 

Aip pon ha njACOAt aca 'tia jjcbmnm-oe 
Aip An cptiop po a n-iApcAp Ap moip-cipe, 
Ajup 50 rr.6pmop Aip A pon po aca Ann a 
gc6rhmn'6e Annp An gCACAip po (UioJAn 
CACAip An A'.J^in Cu'un) Ajup Aip pon ha 
Cui'oeAC'OAn UAipte po, 6 ccApc-bAp mo 
tpoi'Oe cmpim "£iop-CAom JTAitce"p6- 
rhAC 50 CAt,Ap6ipniA (C'p nA n-05, An 6ip, 
vgup nA Speme) Ajup 50 Caca'p T>AOim 
ppompiAip. 

OcuipeA* Ann iutt>uinn 50 pAtiAip be 
cuAipc ■oo CAbAipc oppAinn, 50 -oci po, 
bu-6 fiA tmn jac Va cap a ceibe. 

Anoip, 50 bptntip Ann Ap meAVg. ajuj" 
gup pei-Dtp linn Ap pvnbe leijeAiin opx, 
1 p mop An c-ACAp cpoi*e Agup All fAfATh 



Aigne aca OppAinn. 

51-0 nAC pAife pe cugCA 5 "ti po, a<1c 
■00 beAgin -oinn Aicne no beic ajahui ope 
Annp An gcobbAin, p6p, a Saoi Oip-oipc, ha. 
meAp jup C015 cpioc cu 'n-Ap mcApc,, niAp 
m peA-6. 1p peiwip be mopAn •omn x>o 
pA-o ju|\ gAUlAtn cu Ann Ap meApj, mAp 

gOAtb Aip ■O' 'oibpeACAlb ciop-JpAOACA. 

niAp •oubAipc mu'mcip n 1i-eijipce te 
niileA* nA 'Spime pAt>6. 

Aca piop aj; cuit) itiaic -oinn Aip cuiw 
■oex) cpeicib, Ajup jJpmneobAp Aca piop 
AjAinnAip-o' pibi-oeACt), Aip •o' itbeAig- 
oAt-o, 130 bpioc-opAiticeAC-o, x>o pcAtpi-6- 
eAt-o Ajjup 00 pjpiobndtpeACT). 

CiT>mit> lonnAC OijeAp -OAp pMi A Amm 

•00 6up Aip An pobbA pATDA pAn Aip A bpUlt 

peptobe* AinmeAnnA nA n ObtArh n-Ap-6- 
cbuifiAp, mAp C6pnA, "OAbtAn -jropjAibt 
SeAntAn, cigeApnAp Ajup mopin eibe, -oo 
cuib -6' 1nip VaiI. An CICOAb UApAb, "Ott- 
eAii nA 11aoui ( 'p nA H-obbArh, Annp nA bAC- 
cib ac_a A 'bpA'O imijce. T)a bpig pin ip 
m6p Ap mbpo-o ApAC Agup Ap meAp ope. 

Ace 6p cionn po 50 beip, aca p'op AgAinn 
Aip An obAip rh6p, ACAip t>a teunjiA i 
n-eipmn, a n-AonACt) beip An rhbtiHin 
UAipib pm, ha pip Agup nA mni ciopgpA- 
aca, peinio'obAipceACA pAn a bAmeAp- 
be ConnpA-6 nA ^AOtiAibge. 1p map §eAtt 
Aip An obAip po aca ip meAp Ajup Ap 



79 



ngeAnn opc-fA CAp bipp. 

Ann Ap meAf-ne, if pAOpAig eile cu 
aca at; cpAob-fgAOileA'O fCifgeib tiiomta 
Aicbeo<>Ai , 6 ha SAO-OAibge, Cum pagin&c'OA 

«A S^ttAC-OA 'OO -Olbipc A]" An -OCln, Aj;Uf 

An ■OAbLAtjeAncAf-o A bAineAf beice, aca 
.Anoif Ag •o'itneAncuJA-6 0]-ca]\6ac , o nA 
n-OAomeA-6, x>o •oibipc \.e . be finb 50 
bf ilAf ix> Apif Ain long a pimifiop, Agup 
50 mbeit> yion^'JAO'olAi mAp but) CeA.ptr 
•001b. jonA*, feunniAp, aj bpAic oppcA 
f em .AiiiAin, Agup fAOi meAf Ag An fAOJAb 
m6]\. A Saoi lonnmum, if e 1110 cuAipm 
50 gcuippi-o pe ACAf ope -do clof,c,o bpuib 
cetcpe cnAobA T>e ConnpA-6 nA ^ao-oaiI j;e 
Aipbun Annj- An gCAtAipfO Aiioif. 

Upi bbiA*AnA Ain ficcit> o -pom cuineAf) 
pcoib ■JAO'DAiige Aip bunn Ann po. Aca 
Aon feAp A 'nAin •010b po buAin beif ah 
pcoib fin, nAp cuip ah cppACAp'o' a ■opumi 
o'n bA fAn 50 t>ci fo if e pn "OiApniAi-o 
pvuAipc, ouin, pcuAmAC Ua "Oeifig. 

TilAi-oip beif An gcuix) eibe -oinn. aca 
p6f beo, - oo buAin beice, c6c,AmAip a]\ 
fUAimneAf Anoif 'f Apif, aCc niop cpeig- 
eAniAijx An obAip Ain pAX> Aip Aon Cop. 

Umie po aca aj fogtuitn nA jAO-oAitge 
be ceACAin no cuig -oe bt-nvoAiiCAib, aca 
ftp Agup mtiA 6gA, Aguf pAipoi-oe nugA'D 
Annj- An gcACAin, Agup An Cuit> eite, aw 
iuit> if mo, 6 jaC a']VO t>' Cipinn. 



Aca An icip t>eAn5ui^ce bcAgin Ann po 
A Saoi, Aguf tj'a bpig fin aca f uib AgAtnn 
be m6fA.n CAipbe 6 t>' CuAipc. 1f mime 
•00 f UAip tn6pcufO •oiob fO aca Anoif Ag 
buAin nA f ib ^a c.eibe ac, pit cimdiobb 
opc-f a, jpeA'OA ceAngAn mAp geAbb Aip a 
bf Atbbije, uaca fo aca a tnbun nA li-oibpe 
Ann po. 50 ■oci fo ni feunp ait> iat> fO -oo 
tAppAngbepeifpeAt pegCApAlXgo cionob 
jAO-oAibge. ACc ni bitieAnn fe p6 T>eip- 
eAnAC 50 •oeo *o -6uine CAfA-6 Aip bocAp 
a beAf a, Ajuf if mAic Anoif fein e. Aip 
fitVe Aip Aif •ouic 50 h-Oipmn ha mig 
min ngbAf, bpeupriiAp, Agup nA fpeAth 
tiglAn, mbinn-gl,6pAC, impigmit) ope bet> 
Coib a Saoi, t>o pA-6 beo po aca ' f An 
mbAibe, 56 bpuib ha •oeopAi-oe Ajuf 
mopAii td'a jcl.Ann aca 'nA gcomnui-oe 
Aip An xiceopAin fo oe lApcAp An t>6ttiAin, 
c6 •61b •o' Gipnin Aguf "OA mbeit)if f6f 
AmeAfj a jteAnn. 

beipbeAC cuca Ap mbeAnnACU 'f ngeAnn 
a mbpeipcib "OonnCAi-o tilic-ConmApA. 

beip beAnnAct) 6m* cpoi'oe 50 ctp ni 
h-ei; eann, 

bAn-cnuic GipeAnn 6jt 
Cum a mAtpeAnn t>e fiobpA-6 1p A'p eibip, 

AipbAn-cnuic eipeAnn 6g, 
An aic u-o 'nAp b' Aoibinn binn-juc e ah, 
11lAp f Ath-CpmccAom AgcAoineA-bjAO^Al.; 
'Se mo d'Af a beic mile miLe'i^cein. 

O OAii-ciiuic eipeAnn 6J. 



80 



REV. F. W. CLAMPETT, D. D. 

My hand to thee, stoutest brother, in a tight, warm squeeze, as 
is fitting, and give me thy hand also. They have been separated 
long enough. 

Judge Coffey — 

Behold, how blessed it is to see 
Brethren dwelling together in unity. 
Such a spectacle we have here this evening, when 
elements hitherto apart have come together in fraternal 
spirit. 

In the language of the toast, we have been separated 
long enough. It is time we clasped hands in the common 
cause of nationality, the Rev. Dr. Clampett. 

Mr. Toastmaster and Gentlemen : 
I am proud that I am one of the few in California who 
can lay claim to be a fellow-graduate of Dr. Hyde. I fully 
endorse his principles, and I see in this Gaelic League a 
common platform on which all creeds and classes can 
unite. Irishmen in an Irish struggle must learn to put 
their Irishism to the front and strive with a single eye for 
true Irish nationality. The time has come when Ireland 
must take her place among the nations of the earth, and 
I am ready to stand by any movement that, like the Gaelic 
League, is devoted to an Irish Ireland. 



81 



REV. P. 0. YOEKE. 

"Ireland a Nation." 
Irish rule in Ireland! That is the word that, to our minds, is 
sweet, a word in which there is sharp efficacy, a powerful word, 
a melodious word. 

Judge Coffey — 

When boyhood's fire was in my blood, 

I read of ancient freemen, 
For Greece and Eome who bravely stood 

Three hundred men and Three men; 
And then I prayed I yet might see 

Our fetters rent in twain, 
And Ireland, long a province, be 

A Nation once again. 

No one has done more in this country to develop the 
sublime spirit of this prayer than the respondent to the 
next toast. 

Years ago, when bigotry and intolerance and religious 
and race rancor were rampant in this community, and the 
staid and conservative elements were supine and timid in 
the face of the aggressions upon their constitutional rights, 
there came out into the open field a man of rare courage 
and capacity, and by the power of eloquence and learning, 
with tongue and pen, and personal prowess, destroyed 
the brood of vipers. 

He was an early advocate of the Gaelic cause, and has 
been from its institution the President of the State 
League. 

I am extremely proud to have the privilege of present- 
ing this gallant champion of the Celtic race, Father 
Yorke. 

Mr. Chairman — It should not be hard to speak to the 
toast of "Ireland a Nation" in the presence and under 

82 



the inspiration of such a nation builder as Dr. Douglas 
Hyde. Our honored guest is one of those, is the chief 
of those, who in Ireland to-day are laying again the found- 
ations of Irish nationality broad and deep. He is the 
master builder in God's own work of raising the walls 
that the enemy had thrown down, and we are here to-night 
proud to be called co-workers with him in the noblest 
enterprise for the benefit of humanity since the three 
hundred saved the west for freedom at Thermopylae or 
the fathers of Eevolution preserved the Greater West for 
a nobler liberty that day at Philadelphia, when they 
pledged their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor, 
that America might be a free country and a haven for the 
oppressed of every clime. 

There have been many movements for the restoration 
of Irish nationality within our own memory and within 
the memory of our fathers. It would not be proper to be- 
little the real achievements of the men who suffered and 
died in years past that Ireland might prosper. No matter 
how opinions alter and circumstances change, we must 
never forget to lay our tribute at the feet of those who 
wished Ireland well. You will find that every movement, 
whether its ending was glorious or inglorious, gave the 
Irish people a new vantage point and new foothold from 
which to climb higher. Who can measure the effects of 
the great agitation known as the Land War? It is trans- 
ferring the property of Ireland from the landlords to the 
tenant. It is rooting the Irish people in the Irish soil, and 
as it was the great work of O'Connell to give Ireland 
a measure of religious freedom, so that she is now able 
to strive for complete religious equality, so it was the 
great work of Parnell to give Ireland a measure of eco- 

83 



nomic freedom, so that now she is able to labor for com- 
plete economic control of her own resources. 

But neither religious liberty, nor economic independ- 
ence, nor even political freedom, can create a nation. A 
nation is something higher, deeper, broader. Our eloquent 
guest has shown you, and the splendid speeches made here 
to-night by clerics and laymen, by Catholics and Protes- 
tants, by Celts and non-Celts, all prove that you accept 
his reasoning — Dr. Hyde, I say, has shown you that it 
is possible for nationality to decay and die, even while all 
these attributes of nationality are being acquired. Nation- 
ality is to the masses what personality is to the individual. 
Nationality is the sum of the proper, own, peculiar charac- 
teristics that make a people. It is expressed and express- 
ible only in one word, and that word when used along 
means the national language. If I wish to speak of the 
art of France, or the science of Germany, I speak of 
French art or of German science, but when I wish to speak 
of the language of France or the language of Germany, 
I say simply French or German, because it is the truth 
and the unconscious testimony of common usage bears 
witness to it that language is nationality. 

It is this fact that makes Dr. Hyde's work so signifi- 
cant and so successful. He himself has acknowledged 
that when he began the attempt to restore the Irish lan- 
guage he did not know the meaning of his act. Like all 
great men, he was building better than he knew. But 
when he saw that under the influence of the language re- 
vival self-respect came back and self-reliance returned, 
and the courage of the Gael began to lift its drooping 
head, when he saw the literary instincts of the people 
begin to break into leaf and blossom, like a bare tree 




REV. PETER C. YORKE, S. T. D. 



touched with the hand of spring, when he saw enterprises 
appear and industry and a subtle spirit of hope and inde- 
pendence run through the whole country, he recognized 
that he had found the charm that would wake the sleep- 
ing princess, and as in the beginning it was the Word of 
God that gave existence and form to God's creation, so in 
man's affairs it is the human word that creates and 
fashions that highest result of human endeavor, a free 
and independent nation. 

This is the key to the riddle of Irish history for the 
past hundred years. Why was it, in spite of the splendid 
devotion of the people, and the genius of its leaders, and 
the remarkable progress made in religious and civil lib- 
erty, that Ireland was bleeding to death ; that her popula- 
tion was disappearing; that all the notes of her national- 
ity were being wiped out ; that she was sinking to the level 
of an English shire? You know it now. The tide of her 
language was running out. And when the tide is running 
out all the winds of the heaven and all the fury of the 
sea cannot prevail. Stand by the shore as the ocean is 
retiring into his abyssmal caves, and, though the tempest 
may roar and mountain waves may hurl themselves 
against the coast, and the thunder of their impact may 
shake the earth, yet, if the tide is going out, they can 
prevail nothing. They, too, must retire with the tide. 
But if the tide is coming in — let there be no ripple on the 
waters, let the breeze swoon into a summer calm, let the 
ocean bosom cease from its long palpitation, let there be 
no sound in the air, nor stir in the sea, and yet, behold, 
inch by inch it creeps upon the land, absorbing the little 
pools, covering the unsightly places, racing over the 
thirsty sands and soon, noiselessly, irresistibly, it comes 

85 



into possession of its own. So it is with the Irish lan- 
guage. It is the ocean tide of nationality, and Dr. Hyde 
is here to-night as a sign and a proof that not only has 
the ebb ended, not only has the tide turned, but that, 
strong with the strength of all elemental things, the flow- 
ing tide of Irish nationality is with the Irish people. 

It is not necessary to go to Ireland to prove that this 
is a great national movement. It is the characteristic of 
all sane and sound nations that when a national enterprise 
demands aid, all the elements of the nation lay aside their 
differences and rally to the nation's aid. If to-morrow 
our flag, the Stars and Stripes, was in danger, every 
American, no matter what his origin, English or Irish, 
French or German, no matter what his religion, Jew or 
Gentile, Catholic or Protestant, no matter what his poli- 
tics, Democrat or Republican, no matter what his condi- 
tion, rich or poor, gentle or simple, employer or employee, 
all would forget the things that separate them and would 
stand shoulder to shoulder and knee to knee in the com- 
mon brotherhood of American nationality to defend the 
flag, the symbol of nationality, with the last drop of their 
blood. So, in this movement of the Gaelic League, we 
behold here to-night — or we would behold, if the elec- 
tricity in its astonishment at the unwonted scene had not 
gone out of business — we behold men whom you could not 
bring together on anything short of a national necessity 
meeting in this banquet room to honor Dr. Hyde. Dr. 
Hyde, you who know nothing about our domestic affairs, 
you cannot realize the lines of cleavage that run so deep 
and branch out in so many ways among the people in this 
hall, differing in religion, in politics, in ambitions, in per- 
sonal likes and dislikes, in blood, in position — differences 

86 



innate and ineradicable — I say, sir, you cannot realize the 
extent of the tribute paid you and your cause by the 
fact that all these differences were laid aside, and we all 
have come to give you a cheering word and a helping 
hand in the great enterprise of making Ireland a nation 
once again. 

It is about that helping hand, gentlemen, I would say 
a closing word to you. Dr. Hyde has come here for two 
purposes, to gain the good-will of America for his cause, 
and to collect a certain amount of money for educational 
work. Let me say that the rebuilding of Irish national- 
ity is a work of education, and only by education can it 
be accomplished. If Ireland were politically independent 
to-morrow, she would have to educate her children into 
Irish nationality. Let us begin that work right now, so 
that when the time comes we may be ready. That is the 
motto of the Gaelic League, "Educate, Educate, Educate." 
It is the motto that has made America, "Educate, Edu- 
cate, Educate." Let us, therefore, be generous in this 
great work and give according to the splendid examples 
that have been set us. One day 's wages will hurt none of 
us, and one day's wages from the friends of Ireland in 
California would give this Gaelic League cause an im- 
petus that would make its success assured. 

And as I look round on this magnificent gathering of 
Californians my heart swells with confidence that they in 
Ireland shall know no cause not to be satisfied with you. 
You who are of Irish birth or blood, and you who are 
here simply because of your love of liberty, and your 
sympathy for an ancient and noble nation, lift up your 
hearts, for the dawn is nigh and now is Ireland's redemp- 
tion at hand. They tell us in the legends of our early 

87 



history how the sons of Milesius sailed in their strong 
galleys from the land of Spain for the isle of destiny — the 
home the prophet had foretold should be theirs after long 
wanderings. As in the misty morning they approached its 
shores the sun god burst from the Eastern sea and tipped 
its hills with gold and the great forests with which the 
land was then clothed waved their lofty arms in welcome. 
Let me say to you that the ships of the Milesians are com- 
ing back. Long have they been banished, doomed to 
plough the waves and to sow in the furrows of the barren 
sea. But they are coming back. From the seaward hills 
of holy Ireland we can see them sail out of the darkness 
into the light of the newborn day, and from those hills 
goes up a cry in a tongue long unheard in palaces, or 
courts, or the marts of men, a cry not of sorrow, but of 
joy and of triumph that the children of Mildh are come 
once more into their own, and that Ireland is a nation 
once again. 



88 



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